Brother of Kasterborous
by Tangerine-Alert
Summary: Gallifrey is his home. It's where he's grown up, where he's studied, where his brother has also. Harry Potter is a Time Lord of Gallifrey, one with fascinating powers that Pythia would have recognised well. Now he must work out who he is when the universe is open to him.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders. I'm just wandering around in their universes.

Ulysses stepped out of the travel capsule and into the oxygen and nitrogen rich air of the blue planet. Earth was how many of its inhabitants knew the planet as.

Looking up at the sky he could see none of the familiar sights; Pazithi Gallifreya, Karn, slowly making its way around their star. None of the familiar sights that one would see if they looked up to the sky of his home planet. Though there were few that would be interested to look up and really study the sky, the space beyond their planet and there would be far fewer who would wish to explore those stars and those times that were up there. Observe, that was what they of their ilk were to do.

Behind him, as he mused on the sky he notice just out of the corner of his eye, his travel capsule shimmered and changed to take on the appearance of one of the poles that supported a light that illuminated the patch of paved land that he was on. The street.

The native population changed so much, it was almost breathtaking to see, to look upon and to walk on ground of this planet it almost gave his hearts pause for thought.

Then he became aware of a curious sight and sound, though it was something more, something that appealed to his extra-temporal senses, the sense that everyone on his planet had, though many lacked the training to put into practice.

There was a young being laying outside the domicile, the home on this cold street , It was not the done thing to leave young beings out like this, he knew much of the cultures of this planet and none would have this done, at least not in a civilised culture.

As he approached and could see the small being, a child more closely he could feel his sense become aware of the being. The child had a strong Arton energy presence, where it sat, where he sat, there was a presence of Arton energy, and more so, something else.

He had felt it before in some students at the Academy and from his own son, and also his brother.

He paused for a moment and stopped himself from the action, or rather the inaction he was about to take. Ulysses wanted to turn around and return to his travel capsule and dematerialise.

That was what those back in the Capitol would do, those who were content to observe.

Ulysses was not one of those people, however. They, in the Academy called him 'reckless'.

His son and his brother however had different opinions of what he did. They were barely Time Tots, only somewhat older than this being, in appearance at least.

Instead he turned back to the young being in the woven reed basket. He was wrapped in a blanket and seemed content where he lay, beyond the conscious world in sleep.

Unconsciousness.

Dreaming.

There was a notice attached within the basket, many of the words he recognised. The names were though easier for where they were placed. He had come to know many of the languages of this planet, and if he let it, his travel capsule would translate what was on the page for him. But Ulysses was a scholar and to know a language was to understand it, not just have his travel capsule do the operation for him.

The name for this young being was 'Harry Potter'. A bold name for such being with such potential.

Looking up at the domicile before him, there was nothing inspiring in it, nothing that could complement the being that he found he was now holding in one arm, wrapped against the cool air of the night.

Then, as the moments passed Ulysses walked back to his travel capsule with the young boy in his arm, the woven reed basket in the other.

The door to his travel capsule opened as he approached and then he was inside, back within the warming humming interior of the travel capsule.

He walked slowly and decisively into the interior, he could feel the craft's presence waiting ready, expectantly,

The room was where he intended it to be, where he knew it would be, a place to set the child down. To set Harry Potter down to rest while he piloted the craft back to his home planet.

Gallifrey.

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There had been some questions of where the young boy was from. The Academy did take in students from beyond the borders of their star system, from their trading partners. Though that was some centuries ago.

Though no one could argue against the Artron energy readings that the boy presented. He presented an affinity for the energy, more so even than some Time Lords.

The Academy had accepted Harry Potter for preliminary entry to the Academy, an entrance he would take up when he passed his maturation, moving beyond that of a Time Tot.

His wife chastised him, she was the only one he confided in, revealing some, though not all of where he had recovered the boy from.

She though admitted she _felt_ something for the boy, and, as he made _contact_ with her and she revelled in his memory, his experience of the blue planet on which they had both stood earlier in their lives, there was something...something he had missed about the domiciles. The homes there. A uniformity that was even alien to the Gallifreyan mindset.

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_Several mega-spans later..._

He stood looking at the tall imposing figure, the figure's cloak was textured, the carver of the statue had gone to great lengths to ensure its accuracy.

The young boy could be found to be standing here before the statue or others like it, on his way to his studies or from them.

"Harry Potter, I see you are here again, looking at these old men." He, the young man turned and smiled at the man whom he had come to know well, even more since his father had disappeared.

"Savar." The young boy said in greeting. Most Time Lords upon first meeting called him Lord Savar. Though some avoided him all together, because of what had happened in the past.

"I seem to find you before a different statue here." He said as he paused behind the younger man. For several moments, though both men knew precisely how long they had stood there, they remained in silent contemplation.

Today found the young boy standing before the statue of Pandak. Reading the inscription in High Gallifreyan and thinking of the man, one of the six founders of modern Gallifrey. After the time of Pythia and the Dark Time.

"Following a time of chaos, these Gallifreyans stepped out into the cities of Gallifrey and forged a new path through the destruction and mysticism of Pythia." Savar spoke softly.

Harry had heard the stories of the ancient Gallifreyans many times, Gallifrey's vast empire, their trading partners even more than they had now. And the time of Pythia, when Gallifrey was ruled through all knowing telepathy and the power of Pythia. When the Menti Celesti were worshipped.

Gallifreyan history was something that Harry found fascinating, and that of the histories of the other planets that the had visited.

"Come now Harry, I do believe you have classes in a few spans. Let us stop watching statues of those who came before." Savar gestured to the long corridors that led away from the Panopticon.

"Yes Lord Savar." He said in a humorous tone as he took one final look at the inscription below the statue.

"The statue and its inscription will remain Harry, there is no temporal manipulation that could reach to change those things." Savar said.

"Gallifey's ancient past is time locked, no time ship, TARDIS, time ring or time craft can breach the Dark Time, Time of Empire or the Time of Chaos." Harry said in a calm tone, reciting from memory the things he had learnt and read; from the great archives and learnt from his tutors in the Academy.

"Very good Harry." Savar said as the passed out of the Panopticon. "I heard from my cousins that you spent Othermas at Lungbarrow. Your brother and his did not attend?" Savar turned to the younger, much younger depending on measurement.

"They've been there many times, they seem to want to study." Harry said, smiling at the memory of being outside of the Capitol. "I saw the Hermit again."

"Your brother's Hermit?" Savar asked an amused tone in his voice. "Did he tell you stories as he did your brother?"

Harry nodded. "Some he's told before, but others are new. I also hiked Mount Cadon alone."

"Something your cousins had cautioned you against in the past?"

"My brother would always come with me. But..." He paused.

"But?" Savar pressed.

"He said, being able to stand atop Mount Cadon, looking out to the night sky, it was as though he could touch the sky, and go further." Harry paused as they a transportation platform arrived than they stepped in. "But no one would ever let him."

"We must observe but not interfere. It is the Time Lord way." Savar calmly responded.

"It's not the way my brother wants to do things." Harry said as they stepped out.

"Some of us are drawn to things we cannot understand Harry and there are prices we pay for that." Savar said softly. Harry had heard some Time Lords and some students in other Chapter Houses speaking in whispered tones about Savar. How he had travelled far beyond Gallifrey, and how he had been injured. He had gone through more than one regeneration since then.

Savar never spoke of it, but had indicated that his incarnation that had done those things had been reckless and dangerous.

It was also what some had said had happened to his father, that he had become reckless and departed Gallifrey to explore.

Harry wasn't sure, he had some very clear memories of his father, and mother. One when he and his brother, and his brother were standing out on a warm evening, as the deep yellow orange sky gave way to the great blackness of space. The stars, Pazithi Gallifreya and her twin moon in the sky above. It had been wondrous. He remembered his father laughing at his brother's joy and watching his brother's brother looking around quietly taking in all that was around him. Harry remembered the awe he felt, of the sky, the moons, of space. Of Gallifrey and all her lands. Of his father also, an imposing figure almost like those statues in the Panopticon.

Then one day, shortly after he began the at the Time Lord Academy, he was gone. A TARDIS travel capsule, his travel capsule also gone.

Ulysses, his father was known for this, but had not, for all Harry's life done it before. His brother had left when he had heard the news, running out to live with the Shobogans, and only his brother's brother remained.

They had shared study periods and spoken together, his brother's brother was quieter than his brother. But they spoke amicably. He revealed that he and the others in his Academy year had taken on pseudonyms, alternative names, for when they were together a group of them, rebelling from the rest. 'The Deca'.

Koschei, was what he had decided to call himself.

It was Harry had to admit faster to say than his actual name. While his brother was known especially around the Shabogans as 'Theta Sigma', though those outside the Capitol shortened this name even further to just 'Thete'.

Koschei seemed to find this a little insulting to their name, or perhaps their heritage.

"...Caught in thought Harry?" Savar gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

Harry nodded, he sometimes found himself silent for too long or staring off away from the looks of others as he thought on things. Some of the Time Lords; his tutors, the archivists, commentators and the like didn't notice, they were used to Time Lords caught in thought; musing on the state of the universe.

Not that he was technically a Time Lord yet, you could not be called a Time Lord until you finished the majority of your study, until you gazed into the Untempered Schism.

His brother and others of his year would be completing most of their study and soon be gazing into it. It would not be Harry's turn for several mega-spans yet.

"Do not let yourself be stuck within your mind. The Matrix awaits when those transcend life and move beyond the physical. At the end of their lives."

"And I am just beginning mine." Harry said playfully, it was something Savar felt that he should remind Harry of. With what Savar had gone through in his early incarnations and all.

"Go now, you do now wish to make your tutors angry."

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_Several spans further more..._

Koschei had been changed by looking into the Untempered Schism. Harry tried to tell his brother this. But his brother would not, or could not listen, he seemed possessed by possibility, by what lay beyond Gallifrey.

When they had been taken, in the past on observation trips to other times, other worlds his brother had been joyful and sometimes obsessed by exploring. Ulysses, before he had disappeared knew to keep a good eye on his brother, on the few occasions when Ulysses had persuaded those in power to allow private trips of exploration, 'day trips' his mother had called them.

But when their tutors allowed observation for their studies they could not go far, but his brother always wanted to go, explore, interact, see the planets, space stations or other places.

Now though as his brother and the rest of his Academy year gazed into the Untempered Schism, they each saw something, something different. His brother had seen the potential, the other worlds, he had been inspired, like many of his year. Ushas he had heard also had been inspired by what she saw.

She was always friendly and curious about him, his brother somewhat less so. From what she had not said it seemed his brother annoyed her with his lack of focus.

It was from Ushas that he had heard that Mortimus had giggled with glee after his time before the Schism. Ushas' scientific studies were important, that was why she respected him for they both could be found in the Gallifreyan archives. Though Ushas was somewhat like his brother's brother; Koschei. Focused as was Drax would say, too focused to have a good time.

Though like his brother Drax would spend time with the Shobogans. Maybe it was the way he turned his voice that annoyed Ushas, Koschei and Vansell.

All were part of the Deca, though Harry wasn't, he was younger than them all, but his brother's connection and his being part of the Prydonian chapter allowed him to interact with them.

-/

Harry didn't feel he could speak with Savar about the Untempered Schism. Experiences such as those were best left to young Time Lords and Savar had already more than once experienced inspiration, madness and the drive to run to and away from things. Whenever those of the Academy experienced the Schism Harry knew that Savar would spend time out of the Citadel in the House of his cousins. Or maybe out exploring collecting seeds of the Madevinia aridosa flower, the Schlenk Blossom and seeds of the Cadonwood tree for his experiments and for the gardens within the Capitol.

Though Harry knew that they did not grow well within the Capitol, it was better when they grew outside, amongst the Great Houses and old in the wilds of Gallifrey.

He loved walking through the forests of Cadonwood, their silver leaves all around him, the flutterwings flying between the trees and out into the fields of Schlenk Blossom. Whenever he went out, with Savar and occasionally alone he would bring back some Schlenk Blossom for his brother, he always said it was amongst his favourite smells.

Instead he decided to transmat to the house of his cousins the House of Lungbarrow, to speak with Kithriarch Ordinal General Quences, or as he insisted all newcomers to the house call him at least once Ordinal General Quencessetianobayolocaturgrathadadeyyilungbarrowmas.

He was a stern man and Time Lord and took his role of Kithriarch seriously to all who were related to the House of Lungbarrow, which included Harry and his brother.

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Ordinal General Quences looked up when his door was knocked upon, he had already been informed by the House a cousin had visited upon them. It was not unusual for cousins to visit, especially now, when Academy students gazed into the Untempered Schism. His house had had its share of madness induced by the Untempered Schism, The mind of some Gallifreyans and even Time Lords could sometimes not cope with the possibilities presented by the Schism.

But it was surprising that it was not the wayward one, nor his brother who sometimes visited from his own house of Oakdown.

It was the quiet, yet powered one. The one who would not look upon the Untempered Schism for several more spans yet.

"Harry Potter. What has brought you to my rooms, all the way from the Capitol?" The young cousin did well to hide his features, but Kithriarch Ordinal General Quences could read the cousins of his House, and did not need to use his psychic powers to do so.

Not that he was as gifted as some, their cousin Innocent was particularly gifted in that field.

But he still knew something troubled his young cousin.

"I'm worried Ordinal General Quences." He said as he walked in, using his full title he knew that the young cousin was worried.

Quences waved a hand over to his library, it was somewhere that the young cousin Harry Potter had asked him to explore when he had visited with his brother. Not that the older cousin was as interested in books.

He preferred to get his information from the Hermit who told tales and stories. Sometimes Quences wondered at the expense that the Hermit cost his house. But the Hermit had also inspired many cousins of the house to go on into Gallifreyan society. Many had gone into the Patrex Chapter House of the Academy, that which produced the artists and the aesthetes.

Though he was still unsure of what Harry Potter's brother would do into the future, there was wild almost untamed passion that he had. A passion to change things that could not be changed, against society. A revolutionary. He had warned Ulysses about that, but Ulysses would never listen.

"Now young Harry, what has you so concerned?"

"Koschei is changed, more so than the others by the Untempered Schism." Koschei, the name taken by Harry Potter's brother's brother. He was part of a group that had formed within the Prydonian Chapter, he had been reliably informed that they called themselves 'The Deca' a pooling of multiple talents and interests of study. It was something of a new phenomena. New for in the past 300 years at least. Quences did not enter the Capitol often however, he and the other Kithriarchs of the houses remained outside it, dealing with their own business.

"All Gallifreyans are changed by gazing into the Untempered Schism Harry. It is what makes Time Lords great." He paused. "Or mad." There was no use in deceiving the young cousin. He knew that Harry frequently spoke with Savar and his madness in a previous regeneration was well known.

Harry shook his head. "I don't think he's been unsettled, but he has changed."

Quences looked to the young cousin. He was more perceptive of some things than others within the Academy. He also showed a great aptitude for tele-psychic transference, not that he knew it yet. It was a skill not even Innocent possessed. But it was something that was documented although not many of his or other houses could complete a successful transference for many millennia. But in the Dark Time and during the Time of Empire it was one of the many great powers their ancestors possessed.

"What of your brother?" Quences asked as Harry shifted looking around the library. Quences tapped his foot on the ground. The young cousin could get caught in his thoughts sometimes, not a great issue. Thought and thinking were better than reckless actions. Something his brother was prone to do.

"He has become..." The young cousin paused but did not seem to allow himself to get distracted this time. "Changed, but not as much as Koschei. He is excited about the possibilities the future holds." He said carefully. Quences mused on that for a few moments. That was sometimes good in a cousin. Excitation concerning the future was something that drove Time Lords, gave them a sense of empowerment.

Although Harry's brother was always quite excitable, especially by the tales from the Hermit.

-/

Harry returned from visiting the House of Lungbarrow and speaking with Ordinal General Quences feeling somewhat better. The man was imposing but speaking with him he felt better about his brother, and his brother Koschei.

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_Many spans later..._

It had been some time since the 'renegades' had left Gallifrey. Each taking a travel capsule; a TARDIS and leaving Gallifrey behind.

His brother had been one of the first to leave. Harry still had the letter.

He knew his brother had been disappointed at what he could do, where he might go, what to pursue after gazing into the Untempered Schism. Harry had even seen him looking at the TARDIS cradles longingly, looking at them sitting there in their unhidden states, their camouflage units inoperative as they sat waiting in their cradles.

His brother had left, signing the letter with his name and the name he had adopted for himself some spans before his departure; the Doctor.

Harry knew the term, an individual of healing, learning and exploration. That suited his brother. He could tell just from the letter and how it was crafted, the hand in which it was written, that his brother had been excited, too excited to wait.

The High Council did not know when the renegades departed. Many spans had passed before anyone noticed their departures.

His brother, Ushas, Mortimus, Drax, Magnus and Koschei had all departed, each using a TARDIS that had been in-operative or decommissioned and was therefore not monitored.

The High Council was concerned of Magnus, his knowledge and skill with temporal engineering and the temporal travel capsules. Though his knowledge was mostly theoretical.

Ushas had caused many problems for the High Council before she left, pursuing her science experiments from what Harry knew.

Koschei, Harry was relatively sure had left after his brother 'the Doctor'. Perhaps annoyed that his brother had done such a thing.

After the group had left the High Council had declared them all renegade Time Lords, as the High Council stated they all departed to break or had broken the Time Lord and Gallifreyan laws some of the highest order.

Harry was unsure how to react to this. His brother and the others of the Deca had become somewhat different from their experiences at the Academy and with the Untempered Schism.

Harry had decided not to mourn the departure of his brother, Koschei, Ushas and the others, but to be pleased for them, that they had decided to pursue their chosen directions in their lives.

Harry was still somewhat unsure of the direction he was to take. His tutors thought he had the makings of a great Historian.

But he, like his brother also wished to explore, not just Gallifrey's past.

There was also the blue planet, Sol 3 in the Mutter's Spiral. Earth. The planet his father said he originated, but he was now and had been for most of his life a child of Gallifrey.

-/

Today was a different day. Today would be the day he gazed into the Untempered Schism. He had spent the morning in contemplation between the great statues of the Panopticon. Gallifrey's founders, represented in statue form.

They had not gazed into the Untempered Schism, these men who had shaped Gallifrey's early history after the time of Pythia. They had not needed to gaze into the Untempered Schism, they went out into the universe, waging wars, changing civilisations.

Omega created his Hands of Omega and mastered stellar manipulation, Rassilon's feats were wide and varied, before Omega's mastery of stellar manipulation the Time Lords waged war against the Vampires. Some accounts stated it was the results of this war that lead to Omega's Hands.

Harry wished he could see a bow ship, the mighty weapons of the Time Lords during this time against the Vampires. None had survived from that time.

Harry breathed a soft breath of the cool air around him. It was time, not to think on the past but for his future.

Harry knew when it was time to go to the chamber that held the Untempered Schism, you would not be much of a Time Lord if you could not determine the time.

Other Time Lords nodded to him as he walked towards the chamber. He was wearing the robes of initiation, the robes one wore to the Untempered Schism, the stripes and the colour, a deep ultraviolet indicated his initiation.

The doors to the chamber opened at the appointed time. His tutors were present too, some would accompany him in, but only he would know that he saw within the Untempered Schism. It was a deeply personal and individual experience to gaze into it.

But he had prepared and made himself ready for it.

-/

Around the Untempered Schism were seals of the founders of Gallifrey, the Seal of Rassilon with its never ending lines, the Seal of Omega he who created the Eye of Harmony, there were many others those that many Time Lords did not acknowledge, who did not have their Seal in many places like Rassilon or a feast for them like Omega. Apeiron, Pandak and Eutenoyar. The Other's seal was absent, but many texts indicated he did not have one, or that it was lost to history.

Words of High Gallifreyan were spoken it was one of the languages his father had taught him and his brother. He knew the language as just another language now. It had been most useful as he discovered Gallifrey's history.

Then as the words were spoken the the Time Lords stepped away into the darkness Harry felt alone, as it should be and stepped up to the Untempered Schism and felt the vortex open itself to him.

He felt the vortex open and the possibilities reveal themselves. He could, not so much feel, but the sensation was present, the not there sense of time, the temporal flow of the vortex.

It was said that Time Lords were linked to time, the time vortex. Biodata changed through experience with the time flow. Harry knew the theory and had even put it into practise, temporal projection using his biodata as a source, you could project yourself forward or backward, just by tapping into the connection of time that they shared. Gallifrey's gift, the gift of time.

There was very little written about the specifics of the experience of the Untempered Schism, and now he knew why, it was personal, it was as though he touched the vortex with every fibre of his being. But it was more than that, it was as though a huge book, as large as the universe and even then its size could not be communicated. It had opened and revealed the wonder, the questions, the curiosities of itself and he revelled in its brilliance for a moment, or it could have been eternity, each breath of air felt like it both lasted no time and lasted until the end of this universe and the beginning of the next.

And then it was over, he could feel his extra-temporal senses withdrawing from the onslaught, his other senses becoming aware of the surrounds, aware of the Time Lords in their robes and collars who had stepped back into the chamber.

None questioned what he had experienced, it was not their place to question, merely check for the signs of _great_ instability. There had not been many Time Lords in the past 1000 years or so who had been turned insane by their experiences, though he knew of a handful who had been force-regenerated, their minds unable to cope with their experiences.

Harry felt none of this, a sense of lightness, of completeness, and even a sense of longing, to see, to feel the vortex again.

The Time Lords gave him leave of the chamber, any analysis done as he departed, they nodded, greeting in friendly tones as he departed. This was one of the final steps in completing the Academy, and he had passed.

Harry did not know what to do, as he walked through the corridor of the Capitol.

It was a strange feeling, and he was worried that he had been too concerned for his brother and for Koschei, or as Harry now corrected himself 'the Doctor'. That was the name some of the Time Lords referred to his brother as. He had heard whispers of his brother's actions out in the universe. _Interfering_ and exploring. Two things that Time Lords did not do. TARDISes and other travel capsules were for observing and research.

-/

It was strange, the longing that he felt that he'd dwelled on, the want to explore beyond Gallifrey, he had felt he belonged here, that as Gallifrey's secrets slowly revealed themselves to him he would feel more tied to this world. But Gallifrey had spread her wings of influence throughout the universe. Rassilon's war against the Vampires had touched many worlds. Omega's search for the perfect stars for his stellar manipulation had taken him throughout the universe. Something Savar knew all too well. Apeiron and Eutenoyar both had travelled and lived on more worlds than Gallifrey knew of, they were some of the least known founders. Pandak became an inspiration for some, despite Pandak III only reigning for a few hundred years. Then there was the Other, the least known of the founders Gallifreyan society, yet his influence and his presence seemed to spread to many, many worlds.

Then there was the infinite complexity of the universe, that was out there, beyond Gallifrey's transduction barriers, beyond her view and scope, and it was all out there to see, and he'd seen it, felt it, as he'd gazed into the Untempered Schism. It was...inspirational. As it should be, that was, one of the things that was said of the Untempered Schism was that it would inspire Time Lords to go on from the Academy. Some of Gallifrey's past presidents had been greatly moved by their experience with the Untempered Schism.

For now though Harry was not sure what he wanted to do, something to calm his mind and body.

Returning to his chambers and changing from his robes to something more suitable he made his way to the transmat.

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Walking through the forests of the Cadonwood trees, their silver leaves flickering in the wind, the orange sky overhead, it allowed his body and mind the calm, and give him time with only the noise of the wind and the of his footwear on the ground to suggest his presence. It gave him time to reflect on his experience alone, away from the Capitol and from the older Time Lords talking amongst themselves, out here, even in the day light it was possible to see the things that lay beyond Gallifrey. Pazithi Gallifreya was often visible as the moon orbited Gallifrey, some of the trading spacecraft could also be seen as they awaited entry to Gallifrey's transduction barriers.

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_A few more spans later..._

Harry was walking back from one of his final exams at the Academy when he _felt_ it. He presumed all the Time Lords felt it, it was huge in temporal terms and likely had registered high on the Bocca and Kodicek scales. But very few of the Time Lords that were in the Panopticon as he walked through seemed to notice. Though for Harry it felt like something, something...he wasn't sure what, had arrived on Gallifrey.

Those that he saw had noticed something quickly returned to what they had been doing, like shaking off the snow in the winter or batting away a flutterwing during their breeding season when they were most prolific.

When he returned to his chambers he turned his screen to the Public Register Video, but there was no information about the temporal event, nothing at all to explain what he felt.

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Harry stood as close as he could to the top of the Capitol, looking out to the east of the Capitol where Olyesti lay a short distance away.

He had had disturbing dreams for the past few nights, he had put them down to the concerns of completing his Academy study, though they were not normal dreams, if dreams, the contents of dreams could ever be considered normal.

He knew some Time Lords and Gallifreyans tried not to dream, or trained their minds to lock away their dreams. Some did not want to visit upon their inner psyche, past incarnations making themselves known while the body was resting. Savar he knew was like this, he often took himself away from the Capitol, sometimes spending time at his House with his cousins, sometimes with the Shobogans.

Harry had come to this point high above the Watchtower and the Capitol of Gallifrey to think on Gallifrey, on the Capitol, on his future.

And on his dreams that had been so disturbed since the temporal event. There had been the briefest mention of a temporal differential event that had supposedly originated from the Penansulix Structure.

But Harry knew that the Penansulix Structure was still being constructed and while its outer frame was mostly finished the inner structure that would hold the science developments were not yet present.

In any case temporal based researches would not primarily take place there, and what he had felt was most definitely temporally-based.

From this vantage point he could see the peaks of many of the mountains against which the great Houses were built beside. Shifting slightly he could just make out the peak of Mount Perdition, somewhere near it he knew lay the estates that Koschei's family held.

Harry mused that he should be sad that they, Koschei, his brother, Ushas weren't present for his graduation, but it was not a celebratory matter. They had pursued a goal that they wished to.

Although the High Council had branded them renegade Time Lords for doing so.

Rassilon, Omega, Apeiron, Pandak, Eutenoyar and the Other had each set out towards goals of their own and had shaped Gallifreyan society, they were all held in high regard, despite only three being remembered by almost all of Gallifrey's populous.

Harry paused in his musings as he heard a swish of a Chancellory cloak and turned to see the commander of the Chanellory Guard standing before him.

"My Lord Potter."

"Commander?" Harry asked curiously.

"I was just checking, you've been here for some time." He said, Harry looked back to the mountains and realised it had quickly turned from day to twilight, night would soon be approaching as Gallifrey's rotation brought an end to the day.

"I've just been thinking, seems I let my thoughts get away from me." Harry smiled, the commander nodded.

"I'll leave you Lord Potter." He said turning to leave.

Harry looked back to the view but found his thoughts could not come together again.

"I'll return down with you Commander."

"Sir." He sounded uncomfortable as they stepped into the lift down from the vantage point. "I'm sorry if I-"

Harry cut him off. "I would have spent the night caught up in my thoughts Commander."

"Sir." He still had a controlled tone to his voice.

"Don't concern yourself Commander, I wasn't formulating a new method of propulsion or recalculating how many dimensions we have in my mind." Harry paused. "Just thinking on the past."

"Yes sir." He sounded relieved.

When the lift reached ground level Harry stepped out first with the commander following. "A calm evening I hope for you Commander." Harry said.

The commander nodded. "And for you Lord Potter."

Harry paused slowed his passage as he walked away from the commander as the Commander tapped his communication pad on his wrist.

"Watchtower clear." Was all Harry caught.

He dismissed it, the Castellan of the Chancellory Guard was by his position a fastidious individual, and Harry had often seen him prowling the corridors rather than sending the Chancellory Guard to do that job.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

It was only later, much later in fact that night that he was once again assaulted by intense dreams. This time however he could make out more of them, as he awoke early the next morning he could feel that that were more than dreams, they had been assaulting his telepathic areas of his mind.

Harry _knew_ he could discover what had lain within his dreams to so assault him during his sleep, though not within the Capitol where his chambers were. While he knew of Time Lords, many of whom could meditate here, he found he still needed to be away from the other telepathic influences of the Time Lords, and even some of the TARDISes, though their telepathic centres were far more controlled than anything else on Gallifrey.

Making his way to the transmat control he keyed in his destination; the foot of Mount Solace and Mount Solitude, twin mountains of Gallifrey. So named for their isolation and isolating properties, he knew of many who had sought respite from Gallifreyan society and the Capitol here, like the area around Mount Perdition the slopes of these mountains also grew the fine red grass. Whose seeds were edible, if ground and formed into a bread-like dish. He remembered his father and mother making a fire on a cool night and mixing a the dish there. Harry had occasionally gone to the taverns of the Shobogans to consume a similar bread to evoke a memory of times gone by when his father was still on Gallifrey.

Mount Solitude was his choice today, he needed to isolate himself to discover what lay in his dreams; so influenced and directed through his telepathic centres.

Hiking up the rough path he knew his destination, there was a hut about half way up the mountain built of ancient Cadonwood trees. Harry did not know how old the trees were, his father had said that they were from the time of Rassilon, but Harry wasn't sure if he was joking. When he was out here with his brother and himself, and his mother he always remembered his father as smiling.

The hut was where it always was, where he remembered it to be. Inside was a single room, a bed, neatly made by the last person who was within its walls. A place for a fire and a chair and a table.

Harry mused between all the surfaces for a few moments, before removing his travelling cloak and sitting on the ground. The Cadonwood was not as cold as the outside, though through his clothing he could not feel much cold.

Closing his eyes he allowed his mind to shut off all outside input and focused on his inner mind.

All Time Lords were taught this form of meditation, it was useful in many situations and could be useful later, much later in their lives if they needed to commune with their past incarnations.

Harry, like all those who had been at the Academy in his year had not regenerated. It was considered that you were very clumsy or unfortunate if you regenerated whilst in the Academy, although it did happen.

He also knew of games that were played by students of the Academy, games like the Eighth Man Bound, a particularly dangerous game of regeneration identity crisis. It was rumoured that his brother had played it, along with others of 'the Deca'. When Harry had asked him about it, he'd brushed it off as though nothing had happened. Although Koschei had confided in him once and said his brother had come close to ending his life, permanently.

Harry concentrated on his breathing as his mind and memories swept around and tried to ignore the random thoughts that one was prone to, such as his thoughts on the Eighth Man Bound and onto his dreams.

Then they came, as he found his telepathic centre in his mind and touched it triggering an almost physical response in his memories.

Concern, worry, terror, pain.

They came in rushes, assaulting his mind as he tried to concentrate and calm himself. These were just memories, memories of a dream, and yet they were so focused, so targeted, it was so real.

He winced and forced his mind back through the memories of the dream, there was something else to them, something other than just emotions, feelings, sensations.

Then it hit him, again, a sense of..._violation_, it was almost repulsive, but it was a feeling, or rather the it was the dream's feeling that had happened before. Harry attempted to invoke the things he had learned and compartmentalise these memories and continue further. Burrowing further down a striped pig bear's burrow of his mind.

Then, with a splash through the emotions and feelings he found himself in a science chamber within the Capitol. Everything was bright, harsh lighting around the middle of the room, but the edges were darkened.

There was also a void in the middle of the room, he couldn't make out, no matter as he tried to move around this mind scape of dream and memory.

In the room was the Chancellory Guard Commander whom he'd seen the previous night. He was speaking, though he could not make out, or understand what he was saying. Much of the sound in this portion of the dream seemed absent, as was much of the colour and many of the features of the room.

Whatever was the source of the dream was, it seemed in the middle of the room where the void was, the missing element. Though it could be somewhere around the walls of the room, where only darkness lay.

There were, Harry realised as he looked around other people in the room. A Time Lady, she wore the robes of the Arcalian Chapter, then as she turned towards the void in the centre of the room Harry had a flittering of a memory or knowledge of her. Though like a flutterwing escaping on the wind currents from him he couldn't quite grab at the memory of who she was.

He did know her, he was sure, and she hadn't regenerated, he'd know that, he like all Time Lords could tell that. This was just memory escaping from him.

Near her nearest to the door, Harry realised with something of surprise was the Lord President.

They were it seemed discussing of some importance and looking to the void in his dream in the middle of the room.

Then with a shunt the lights went out and Harry felt himself being dragged back through, out of his dreams and memories and back into the reality of the hut.

There was still much of the day remaining as he prepared himself to depart the hut. The walk back down to the transmat point he hoped would allow him to work through his memories.

Sitting here was good to meditate and arrive at what he had found, but he found moving, walking allowed his body to have something to do while his mind worked on a problem. This was much unlike other Time Lords who were happy to sit around mumbling to themselves, as though they were trying to speak through their problems to arrive at a solution. Although he knew of Time Lords who could do this through their mastery of block transfer computations he was not sure if those particular Time Lords could do so.

Then as he was caught in thought and nearly tripped on a stray stone he realised who the Time Lady was, Arcalians often pursued temporal research and the Time Lady was Ailla. His brother had teased Koschei more than once about his fascination with her.

As he reached the bottom of the mountain he still wasn't sure what this all meant. Dreams and divining meaning from them was the realms of the past. It was how Pythia ruled Gallifrey, or part of how she ruled Gallifrey.

Then Rassilon and his Neo-Technologists led to the end of her reign.

But this was different, these _experiences_ were too real and from the wrong part of his mind to be mere dreams, these were experiences channelled through his telepathic regions.

Walking to the transmat point he decided there was one way to resolve these conflicting memories, dreams, emotions and whatever else was being channeled at him; to return to sleep and allow his mind to drift; open and his telepathic centres ready to process the assault that would come with it.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

For the moment as he fell into deep sleep there was nothing, he was almost not in sleep, more a deep meditative trance that allowed for the possibility of sleep. Harry wasn't aware of his surroundings, he had closed off all the sensory input of his body's surroundings. For anyone observing he was asleep.

Then it came, like a controlled mass of smoke and fire, of pain and worry, of many other foreign senses, emotions tunnelling through nothingness until it settled on him.

Harry was aware that it was aimed at him, at his telepathic centre, though he did not, could not prevent it from splashing against his telepathic centres, from coming to him deep within his psyche.

It wasn't a coherent thought, it wasn't anything as logical as thought out as that, it was something raw, something primal.

In the portion of his mind that was aware of what was happening Harry thought for the briefest moment that this might be some sort of animal, perhaps a psychic trace brought in on a trading ship. Such things had happened in the past, Harry had heard tales of an aural creature composed of sound that had attacked some of the Chancellory Guard.

But this seemed to posses intelligence, though Harry couldn't figure what from his position as a passive element to his dreamscape.

Then as he was thinking the force, the presence seemed to become aware of his intellect, perhaps his knowledge, no, Harry thought it was something else. It seemed the primal intelligence had become aware that he was aware of it.

Then he was presented with more images, more sounds, the same people that he had seen during his meditation on his dreams, the Lord President saying something, Ailla also there saying something, though he could not make out words, and then the Chancellory Guard Commander nodding to someone else in the room.

"A Shayde will bring the De-Mat Gun in the morning." Said a person he could not see.

Harry recognised both those terms, one was worrying and the second chilled him to the bone, if he were awake to feel such a thing.

Instead what he felt was terror and helplessness, but it wasn't his emotions he was feeling it was the presence in his mind.

Then the doors opened and he searched, or the presence whose memories he realised he was viewing searched. Outside was a painting, computer painted but it was early computer painting.

He knew where it was.

-/

Then Harry woke up with a shudder; sweat pouring down his face.

Carefully he pulled himself out of his bed and wiped his face down, removing the sweat and allowing himself to pause and think on what he was to do with this information.

A Shayde was an agent of the Matrix, the Pariah and the Shaydes were some of many agents that were created from within the Matrix by many physically dead Time Lords whose minds lived on within the APC Net. He knew of only a handful of incidences in which as Shayde was utilised.

This did not _feel_ like one of those circumstances. It was a very personal choice to make, Harry knew. That whatever it was had contacted him, for what reason he did not know. He knew strongly that he was not being controlled.

Koschei had taught him that, one of Koschei's skills, one that he excelled in, far more than his brother and indeed much of his other classmates was the skill in control. Control over the minds of others. Koschei had taught him what it felt like and how to fight it. Something that his brother could do and something, much to Koschei's annoyance his brother showed his other classmates how to do as well.

Walking over to one of his storage areas he removed a satchel, it was something his father had given him, it was on first glance a satchel of a simple woven material, but it woven into it was the block transfer computations of dimensional transcendence, it wasn't infinite, but it was something that he had used when he was younger, much younger and his father would take himself and his brother outside to watch the skies, see a meteor storm or see to simply see the birth of a single flutterwing; and see it take flight for the first time.

Opening it he looked around his chambers. Harry had a feeling that when he left his chambers he might not return for a while, or perhaps he would return the following day. He knew, without knowing why that he was going to help something, even though had he been asked to prove it, he would not have been able to say.

Looking around there were few things that he thought he should take with him, where ever he might be going he didn't know.

It was more a feeling, he could, he knew if he stretched out and allowed his telepathic abilities to wander feel the presence, the intelligence still seeking him, his mind out. It was stronger now, now that he had acknowledged it.

He placed a travelling robe into the satchel along with the Molenski Univarius that his father had given him, it had been a most useful tool. His brother had one also, though had seemingly made more use of it than he had so far in his life. The Chancellory Guard had concluded his brother had used it, or something like it to gain access area where the disused TARDIS cradles lay, and from there he'd powered up one of the old TARDISes.

Moving to his study where several tomes still lay, unread for the past few days he saw the writing instrument that his mother had given him and picked it up, levelling it in his hand. Sitting at the desk and taking a piece of paper he wrote a note to Savar.

He did not know where Savar was, he was still wandering the plains Gallifrey, the Capitol too much for him, he had confided in Harry once or twice that removing himself from the Capitol and from the Time Lords helped him not stray into the parts of his mind that lay in the past.

He wrote a concise, though somewhat vague letter to him, Harry did not know where he was going or what might happen to him when he did. But Savar was someone who would care of him if he disappeared suddenly, and if he were caught by a De-Mat Gun blast there would be nothing that remained of him, of his existence.

The paper and ink were temporally stable, and wouldn't most likely be affected by any such manipulations, it was in fact Savar who had given them to him during a Feast of Omega some spans ago.

He wrote the note in High Gallifreyan, a language they both shared a knowledge of, though many Time Lords still had a passing understanding of it, it wasn't as frequently used as modern Gallifreyan.

Placing the writing instrument into the satchel along with some of the paper and a spare bottle of ink he cast a final look around his chambers, and then departed.

There were few Time Lords walking the corridors or the Panopticon at this hour of the night, although some did not sleep, they also did not like to wander around at night. Gallifreyan nights were cool, even cold to some people.

Harry sometimes felt the cold, though usually only on the coldest of Gallifreyan winters when snow and wind forced themselves through the Capitol itself, decorating everything with a pale white sheet of cold.

He nodded to the few Time Lords he saw as he walked to Savar's chambers, he knocked, but no one came to the door, as he knew.

There was a slot beside the door, for such letters as his and other works that Savar sometimes received from traders and others that he could receive even if he was not present for them. Harry pushed his letter through there and heard it fall into a basin that Savar kept underneath it.

-/

Harry breathed in slowly as he prepared himself for where he was walking to next, deep in the current science and temporal researches building, he had walked past the painting many times, and many other times he had stopped to admire its work. It was why he'd recognised it in the dream that had been forced upon him.

If it weren't for that he doubted he'd know where to go. While he might have been able to follow the telepathic spores, he very much doubted he would have been able to do it within the time that seemed to be allotted to whatever intelligence was going to be set upon by a De-Mat Gun.

As he walked he encountered fewer and fewer Time Lords until he reached the corridor where the painting lay. Opposite was a wall, with an entry coder, though the door it seemed was hidden behind a perception filter. One that had been mis-aligned, as the logical thing would have been to hide the entry coder as well as the door that it was no doubt hiding.

Harry looked at the entry coder for a few moments and then withdrew from his bag his Molenski Univarius, and used its molecular fine blade to remove the front of the coder.

It was possible that he could guess the code to gain entry, but he doubted it. He knew that there 4 or more people who could have set the code, of them he only knew the Lord President well enough and then only in passing because, like himself the Lord President had a fascination with Gallifrey's history.

But there were far too many numbers and symbols in Gallifrey's history to attempt to guess the code.

The simplest method was to bypass the code and force the doors to open.

His brother had a knack for these sorts of things, though why he had decided to take a Type 40 time travel capsule TARDIS, Harry was not sure. He knew there were higher models of TARDIS, newer more advanced ones. Ushas he had learnt had taken a far newer model one that contained highly detailed scientific facilities which several temporal engineers had spent much time with the architectural configuration to create; preparing it for a long survey mission, and then Ushas stole it while it was most of its systems were offline during a systems check.

Harry stared into the coder's systems and put away the Molenski Univarius' blade and withdrew a finer instrument to tease out the micro-wires within.

He'd never done this before, but he understood the systems within it. So far in his life there'd been no reason to break into anywhere on Gallifrey. The Archives were not protected, even the _Record of Rassilon_ one of the original copies was not held behind any security fields. He had even, after speaking with the Archivist been allowed to handle and read the _Record_ _of Rassilon_. Written interestingly in old High Gallifreyan, though a fairly modern form, which had suggested to him at the time it wasn't the original _Record of Rassilon_ or that Rassilon had written it late in his reign, but even then more information should have been present if it were from a later period.

Then there was a noise of something shorting and the doors slid open.

Harry smiled himself and stepped into the room as the doors slid shut with a noise that indicated the safety seals had engaged. It indicated that he could not leave through the same way that he entered.

Harry took a moment to take in the room, it was as it was from his dream, or his telepathic incident, the darkened walls all around, even the doorway through which he'd come was dark, and the in the middle of the room, where he had not been able to see was the cause of his dreams.

It was a woman.

Or at least that was what his eyes, through the simplest of wavelengths suggested.

But his other senses, his temporally aware ones _screamed_ at him, he felt goosebumps and sweat form along his back and arms.

The woman, was was held in position. Her eyes were closed as though she was meditating, though her body suggested she was aware.

Harry looked hard at what was holding her in position; it was dwarf star alloy. A lot of it, Harry hadn't seen so much dwarf star alloy used in one place at such high densities. It was interesting that it had not collapsed the floor there was so much in use.

Then the whatever it was, the woman, the being, communicated, though she didn't speak or open her eyes Harry _felt_ it. The telepathic distress that went through him almost pushed him off his feet, it was like nothing he had ever felt. A collection of emotions; fear, terror, sadness, wanting, and many others that he couldn't, wouldn't allow himself to feel, lest he be dragged along with it, and then it stopped. The being before him seemingly gathered herself control once more. Now she did open her eyes and Harry had a chance to look at her.

Though he did not look into her eyes, there was still much conflicting telepathic messages coming as waves off of this being.

Her eyes darted to a control panel that Harry had not seen to the side of him. he recognised it from his dream where Ailla had been standing.

The controls here were for measuring different temporal readings and also controlled the restraints, he knew this because they were showing an energy reading of engagement on the panel.

Harry looked to the being and wondered if he was doing the right thing, he could still he supposed leave.

But there was something about this being, something about the dreams that weren't dreams, something made him feel for her.

Harry pushed the button trying not to think at all and went to stand in front of her as the restraints disengaged.

Then as they took their time, various restraints some that he had obviously not seen disengaged from her and her eyes went wide.

Then Harry felt it, another piercing telepathic probe going right through his mental defences and a sudden realisation that he knew, even though he had never experienced it what it was. It was something he had read of, from Rassilon and Omega and from TARDIS builders, pilots and other Time Lords, it was the sensation of a bond forming between TARDIS and Time Lord, he had read of it being broken and the anguish it caused, but the formation took time, this however was not something that...

Then as Harry was trying to gather his thoughts his mind cut off all stimuli in an effort to contain the sensations and he collapsed, yet was caught by something.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Marie watched the young Time Lord enter the chamber she was in. It was the same young Time Lord she had seen in her dreams.

He had bright curious eyes, and the signs of the telepathic contact, from her she assumed. Since she had arrived here she had not been able to control many of her systems.

The Time Lords here, the Lord President had authorised the use of a De-Mat Gun. She knew that was for her, even with few of her external sensors operational, she knew that was for her. Authorisation of her destruction.

Then the young Time Lord had come through the doors of the chamber she was held within, he did not seem surprised to find her. He must have been where her dreams her terrors had found purchase.

She forced her eyes to open seeking out the young Time Lord but he failed to make contact, but she indicated to him, the release controls.

Dwarf star alloy, one of the few things that could hold her, though these Time Lords seemed to have no knowledge of her.

That was perhaps why they had authorised her destruction, much of her databanks since she arrived here were unaccessible.

The young Time Lord operated the controls and came to stand before her.

As her systems reawakened she realised with a shock, and a shock to her systems that the young Time Lord had much Atron energy, an almost affinity for it, and his psychic abilities were far in excess of any that she had known previously.

It caused her telepathic areas to seek him out.

A bond between TARDIS and Time Lord took much time to form, but in times of battle or warfare it could be formed in moments, though there was some trauma for both TARDIS and Time Lord.

The young Time Lord collapsed, his mental and bodily defences activating. She held him and brought him within her dimensions.

And then with a breath of freedom she dematerialised.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Harry awoke with a shudder and looked around; startled.

The first thing he realised was he was lying on a bed, it had the same density and softness as the one in his chambers.

The second thing he noticed was he could feel something, the soft hum of a TARDIS in flight.

No, he corrected himself, it was a TARDIS that was in the vortex, but it didn't feel like they were going anywhere in particular.

It had been part of his Academy education; understanding the states of a TARDIS in flight, it was not part of the standard course, but he was encouraged by his brother, not to spend all of his time in the Archives.

Though he did point out to his brother that he also spent time outside the Capitol _not_ with the Shobogans, but wandering the forests and visiting their House. Something his brother seemed somewhat reticent to do.

Even Koschei, who was sometimes not one to leave the Capitol visited his family's estate on occasion.

Now as he became accustomed to being awake he looked around and opened his senses slightly to the room he was within. It was a large sleeping chamber within a TARDIS, the walls of the chamber were similar to the TARDISes he'd been in during his study, patterned with the roundels, but they were far more...Harry wasn't quite sure, they seemed much more subtle. Less defined than the Type 50 TARDISes that he had travelled in previously, and much less defined than his father's TARDIS. Though he never knew what sort of TARDIS his father had used.

The bed that he was lying on was of a similar design to the one in his chambers in the Capitol. It was interesting that it was of a similar density to the one he slept on.

His satchel was lying beside him, it could not have been opened. Part of its weave included a biodata lock that would only open for his biodata.

Pushing himself off the bed he stood and considered for a moment. Gravity and air quality was as far as he could tell Gallifrey normal. Perhaps slightly warmer than normal, like a summer's day.

He stood at the door that would likely lead out into the corridor for several moments. The door, much like the roundels was subtly different to what he knew of TARDIS design.

It was interesting, though without further information with which to frame it he couldn't make further conclusions.

The outer corridor was much as the chamber he had been within, understated, calm, the TARDIS's hum, it's being of in the vortex was slightly more pronounced in the corridor.

He turned, knowing where to go. A Time Lord knew how to navigate through the areas of a TARDIS, all were laid out in similar ways and anyone could navigate the corridors of a TARDIS if they knew how they functioned, the corridors that led off from the control room were designed so any occupants could navigate back there, easily and if necessary with speed.

The control room held the console and some side alcoves around it, it too seemed to be subtle, with each of the alcoves indicating smooth functionality.

Walking over to the console he walked around it, reflecting and noting the areas of the console he recognised.

It was of a familiar design; six sides with the central time rotor which reached up to the ceiling. This was a design which he had not seen before. Within the time rotor were interlaced prongs which pulsed and interlaced with power. Much as other time rotors in other TARDISes rose and fell with the ebb and flow of power.

The console reflected Gallifreyan technology, but it was of a design that he was not immediately familiar with. As he walked slowly around the console he came to a panel that he was not familiar with, and yet he was familiar with its function.

They were weapons.

On a TARDIS.

There were few temporally active powers in the universe at the moment, though Harry was aware that agencies within Time Lord society were aware of developing powers.

But there was no need for most TARDISed to be armed. There were only a few he knew of that had defensive weaponry.

This TARDIS appeared to be very well armed with several weapons whose design he could not immediately fathom.

The only weapons he was familiar with were of the ancient past.

He moved away from this section and after one orbit of the the console returned his attention to the rest of the room.

Like all the TARDISes he had been in in the past on one side of the room, the opposite site to the door he had entered through were two double doors that would lead to the exterior of the TARDIS. On another side of the room was a frame where he could see the wall of the TARDIS, but what he presumed was the scanner for the TARDIS. Walking back over to the console he completed another orbit of the console before arriving at the control for the scanner and operated it. The frame that he had accurately surmised was the scanner flared into life and then displayed the swirling beauty of the time vortex. Seeing the vortex he allowed himself to relax marginally, the sight of the vortex was a relaxing sight for any Time Lord.

Though it was not their natural habitat like it was for a TARDIS it was a sight of beauty to see it, even a representation of it via the TARDIS's scanner. It was then as he relaxed the tension that he had been holding since he had awakened that he felt the telepathic presence in his mind.

It was something he had not noticed; too caught in exploring this new space that he had found himself in.

The telepathic presence exuded a sense of calm, both from it and for him to remain calm.

He was, he thought quite calm, considering that he was not aware of where he was or in whose TARDIS.

"You are in your TARDIS Lord Harry Potter." Said a voice behind him.

Harry turned slowly around to find a woman dressed in plain almost militaristic clothing in front of him.

It was the same woman he had seen in the chamber on Gallifrey.

He studied the figure and almost immediately realised she was not real; a holographic representation of the woman.

"And who are you?" Harry paused and then he found he knew the answer, provided by the bond he realised had been finalising as he had awakened.

"Marie." They said together.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Marie smiled and relaxed as she breathed in the time vortex. Not that it was breathing, but that was the language that some people, even Time Lords used to describe how a TARDIS reacted in the time vortex.

But this was such a different time vortex to the one she knew, as was the Time Lord she was now bonded to.

This time vortex teemed with life; Chronovores fluttered past her, Vortisaurs screeched as the flew around time eddies, swarms of Chronomites paused devouring slivers of debris from engine exhaust from a badly tuned time engine, Time Roaches swam after the Chronomites hoping for something dislodged to feed upon.

It was not like the time vortex she had known, ravaged by millennia of war, a war that had taken her bonded pilot.

Her databanks had been corrupted somewhat by the explosion that had thrust her into this universe, much of her internal dimensions likewise had been disrupted.

She recalled her primal systems had engaged sending her back to Gallifrey's coordinates, it had been surprising to find Gallifrey where it had stood.

When she had been there her systems had reacted mostly on instinct, seeking out a Time Lord to assist her.

It was only as more awareness came to her that she realised that this was not her universe, but one far away from hers, a parallel timeline.

Where Time Lords were similar yet different to the ones she had known.

The Time Lord she was now bonded to was especially different, he had held out a surprisingly long time during the uncontrolled bonding process. And was now unconscious within one of her reconstructed sleeping chambers.

The Time Lord; Harry Potter had a surprising amount of Artron energy within him, and also psychic abilities far in excess of the Time Lords and Lady who were present in the chamber she had been held within.

As he awoke she monitored him, she would not normally monitor Time Lords within her structure so carefully, but the bonding had been uncontrolled and violent.

Lord Harry Potter had an ordered calm mind as he analysed the room he was in. His actions indicated he had been within a TARDIS before.

She could not use her telepathic circuits to gaze deeply into a Time Lord's mind, not without express actions on his part; connecting with her console.

He spent several minutes analysing the chamber that he was in, then once he was in the outer corridor he made his way to her control room. His swift passage further an indication of the knowledge of being within a TARDIS before.

He circled her console several times, and it seemed shocked to discover that she was armed. As well armed as any other TARDIS in Gallifrey's fleet. Though it seemed not this Gallifrey.

Lord Harry Potter had discovered the scanner, though he seemed to make another circle of her console to be sure of which control to operate it. The controls on a TARDIS be it hers or an ancient TARDIS were broadly the same, meaning a pilot proficient in a War TARDIS could control a president's TARDIS if need be.

Lord Harry Potter visibly relaxed and relaxed his mental and telepathic defences when he saw that they were within the time vortex. She relaxed and had been joyous upon finding herself in such a vibrant time vortex.

As he relaxed he also became aware of her telepathic presence, the bond was mostly complete, although she had not been in contact with a Time Lord with such formidable psychic abilities such as he had. She could not remember but was sure none such as he existed from where she came from.

She attempted to present a sense of calm to him as he cast his abilities around him.

A sense of a question presented itself to her telepathic circuits and she decided to manifest herself as a hologram in her console room for him and to answer his question.

"You are in your TARDIS Lord Harry Potter." And he was, they were bonded, Time Lord and TARDIS.

"And who are you?" He asked looking to and through her holographic presentation. She made her name available to him, within her telepathic circuits, but prepared to say it also, just as he spoke.

"Marie."

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Harry recognised as they said her name together the completion of something he had only read about, it was something that for the most part still existed as a theoretical concept, the bond that formed between pilot and TARDIS. Time Lord and TARDIS.

TARDISes had a form of sentience, but it was not something that allowed interaction, as he had just had. Although some particularly active in the psychic field Time Lords had very occasionally reported a communion with their TARDIS, a sense of it knowing them interpreting their actions and needs.

But this TARDIS was standing before him and when they said her name he realised far more, much more than he could process in his active mind at that moment.

He staggered over to the console.

"I think..." He started as he moved over to the coordinate entry panel. "I would like..." He started and then looked back as he realised. "This hologram is your outer shell."

She indicated an affirmative. "I think I would like to interact with that, not your representation." He said as he focused on the coordinate entry panel. There were few coordinates he knew that he could confidently key in.

One that he knew, that his father had taken him and his brother once was Barastabon, a planet almost completely dedicated to baked confectionary and culture based breads.

Keying in most of the coordinates he left some of the temporal ones open, a TARDIS even a Type 30 could use the temporal information from Gallifrey to key in the rest. Then he stumbled to one of the alcoves to sit again. The strain of the completed bond making him feel weak.

-/

Marie smiled and disengaged her hologram as Lord Harry Potter operated her console, keying in coordinates even in his dazed state at the completion of their bonding.

She recognised the coordinates as Barastabon, a planet that had remained mostly untouched by the wars of her own universe.

Here it seemed to hold significance to Lord Harry Potter.

-/

Harry blinked awake from his rest, not sleep, simply resting his mind as he felt and heard the rematerialisation of the TARDIS.

A tone signalled that they had landed.

He felt better than he had as he walked over to the console to check out outside environment. Warmer than Gallifrey with breathable atmosphere, he checked the scanner which revealed an open field with a city some distance away.

Then he looked around the console and settled on a control for the doors and strode towards the doors.

There was the briefest moment of disorientation as he stepped out of the TARDIS and turned back and was shocked at what he saw.

Bright light as the woman he had spoken to, the TARDIS; Marie, had her arms parted and she had split apart and now...she was reformed.

"I...you..." Harry found unable to speak. He knew TARDISes could operate their chameleon circuits at will to disguise themselves or they could be user operated from within. But he did not know of any TARDIS that could take on the guise of a being.

Harry decided to sit down feeling the soft grass beneath him as he sat. He could smell the crush of the grass against his robes.

He indicated to Marie. His TARDIS to join him, sitting opposite.

In one fluid movement she was seated opposite him.

"..." Harry began and then changed his mind. Then he decided to ask his question. "You're not a TARDIS I am familiar with."

"No. Lord Harry Potter."

Harry shook his head, while he was used to being called Lord Potter he did not think that something, such as a TARDIS should call him that. "Harry."

She looked at him briefly and then nodded.

"I am a Type 103 TARDIS." She stated.

Harry put his hands behind his back and leaned back on them, supporting his body as he mused on this information.

The most advanced TARDIS he was aware of was a Type 55.

Then a wave of concern went through him. "Are you from the future?" Interacting as he had done and indeed as she had done with the past was terrible, a violation of the Laws of Time.

She looked at him seriously and said no. "Not exactly." She said displaying an awkwardness that almost suggested her humanoid and failed to communicate the vast dimensions she held within her.

"I am from another universe, another time." She said and then explained.

Her world, her Gallifrey had been caught in decades long war. She was the result of selective breeding of TARDISes.

That concept; breeding of TARDISes was so alien to him, it shocked him. That Time Lords would do such a thing.

She had been caught, or perhaps stayed with her pilot as he destroyed a planet.

Harry had needed to make some conclusions of his own as she explained, most of her story was through words, but he caught images, telepathic traces.

"There are gaps in my databanks." She explained.

She said she found herself falling, through a CVE or perhaps through a black hole bridging dimensions.

"My systems were operating on instinct when I materialised on Gallifrey." She explained.

"Why me?" He asked, why had she sought out him. She told him he had unique abilities.

That was true. Ordinal General Quences had said he had advanced abilities, even in advance of Innocent, and she was considered 'gifted', though being labelled gifted was sometimes a curse. Some Time Lords called Savar in his previous incarnation gifted.

"What happens now?" Harry paused looking around them. He hadn't been here since he was very young. It was strange seeing grass so green. "Do you wish to attempt to return to your universe." He paused and then admitted. "Though I do not know if such a thing would even be possible."

Marie, the TARDIS before him tensed and he sensed a negative. "No Harry. You are the Time Lord I am bonded with." She paused and a wave of sadness, or at least he thought it was sadness cascaded from her and then was shut down abruptly as though she became aware of his awareness of it. "He is dead, and I am here."

Harry nodded and then made to stand up, Marie stood in one fluid motion and offered him her hand as he stood, he stood without her assistance.

"Now what?" Harry asked her as he looked around.

She seemed puzzled by the question and said so.

Harry shook his head. His brother and his brother had left Gallifrey to escape its structures. Ushas had left for her experiments, supposedly. Others of the Deca, the group his brother had been a part of had also left, pursuing whatever _renegades_ did. There were no renegades that he knew of in his year. His brother's year of the Academy had the highest rate of renegades and other activities for much time.

There were places he wished to explore, knowledge to seek, histories to know.

He now had something, someone to take him, a companion to go with him to explore.

Though, in a corner of his mind Harry also knew he had to be careful. From what Marie had said and the telepathic contact from the memories she had relayed she was still...damaged from her experiences.

"There are some places I wish to explore." Harry said as he looked around and then looked to Marie slightly uncomfortably.

When he had entered TARDISes previously there had been a key, or a Time Lord would use a palm print. But here, with her, he wasn't sure. "How do I...?" He asked.

She smiled. "I know who you are Harry." She said and opened her arms.

Her body seemed to just split down the middle as her outer shell parted and allowed him entry to the dimensions held within her. He walked forward and as he entered saw the doors close behind him.

He mused in his mind he found it somewhat odd, entering a TARDIS, like this and said something to that affect out loud.

"It is something some humanoids also acknowledged." Marie said, though she didn't manifest herself as a hologram within the control room.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

_A/N:_

_A very long opening chapter to this story. I've been thinking of it as the extended movie length opener to the story. The other chapters probably won't be as long as this._

_I'll also explain what's going on, a little bit. _

_This is my stab at the 'Harry is the Doctor's brother' story. _

_This is going to be __**very**__ Doctor Who heavy for a while. I do intend to get Harry to Earth and Hogwarts eventually. But it'll something of a long voyage around the Doctor Who universe(s) until then._

_The universe that this story takes place in isn't the standard Doctor Who universe. Not entirely. For this universe it's quite AU as I'm shoving together several bits of the Doctor Who universe, and some things which aren't entirely._

_Marie is a humanoid TARDIS, she originates in a Doctor Who novel called __**Alien Bodies**__._

_I've shifted a few events around, like the Untempered Schism, which happens at the __**end**__ of Harry / the Doctor's Academy study rather than at the start. Just for me it makes more sense for them to go in prepared, following their study than at the start. Because if it has the capacity to make you insane, then that's a lot of study with a mad person._

_The Master, here known as Koschei, is referred to by Harry as his brother's (the Doctor's) brother. Which doesn't come from anything Doctor Who universe exactly, but from some unproduced movie proposals in the 90s. Though not quite. _

_What it means is that Harry and the Doctor are brothers, their father is Ulysses. The Master is the Doctor's brother, but not Harry's. _

_Just to pre-empt some questions that might be explained later, yes Harry is a Time Lord._

_He doesn't have a second heart, not yet. Time Lords get that when they regenerate._

_I will possibly explain this back story (or possibly not as Harry's already knows some of it). Basically Harry starts out as a somewhat out of the ordinary baby on Earth. But growing up on Gallifrey modifies and manipulates your biodata making him a Gallifreyan. Sort of like a super-advanced River Song biology wise._

_If anyone's confused/interested about any of the Gallifreyan terms / references I'd suggest searching for them on the Tardis Data Core, Doctor Who Wiki. I had to double check several things in writing this chapter._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Harry Potter looked over from the table where he was sitting as he heard the strangled noise of a time travel capsule, possibly a TARDIS materialising just beside the outside of the tavern where he was sitting.

It took almost a span for the capsule to even make an outline of an appearance and several more to fully materialise.

None of the patrons of the tavern took any notice of the strangled noise of materialisation. Which was not surprising given what was here. The moon he was seated on did not have a name, or it had more names than could be counted. It was known as the 'Time Junkyard', the moon orbited a planet where, from the readings when he'd landed here a Temporal Extinction Device had been detonated in the solar system. The moon was home to various species selling pieces of time travel equipment, pieces of TARDISes and other races' attempts at time travel. None of it was from any recent developments, but it seemed the moon had several people wanting the seller's merchandise.

The reason they'd come was, after visiting a few planets he had discovered that Marie had not been as unaffected as she'd first indicated from her travel to his universe, and the one thing she was missing within her dimensions was a tool kit. The standard part of most TARDISes to do basic maintenance was a toolkit, so they were here.

He had told her to go looking for what she needed, she would have a better idea of the parts and pieces than he would. She had seemed somewhat surprised or confused, he wasn't sure by him telling her to do so.

If he was honest with himself he was still a little unsure around her. But that was often the case, though it was usually the case that the Time Lord was the confident one rather than the TARDIS.

Though he did often get the sense that she was also the unsure one, even in the vortex there was something to her personality that he couldn't fathom.

None of what he was facing he'd been taught at the Academy, how to deal with these challenges. He doubted his instructors could ever have imagined him facing this sort of problem.

He had discovered something interesting, it wasn't just technology that was traded here, but texts, many of which had obviously come from TARDISes and other Gallifreyan time vessels.

They were in less demand and thus he'd needed less currency to purchase these texts.

He and Marie had stopped at an asteroid field to collect various rare minerals and metals to use as trade, though Marie did have within the alcoves of her control room several different currencies.

However most of the rest of her interior had been purged when she'd travelled to this universe.

Several of the texts were various Record of Rassilon, some fairly old. They were mostly the same text, but there were some interesting translation differences.

There was a box of books at his feet that he'd purchased from a trader, all supposedly dealt with the Time Lords, though the seller hadn't been more specific. A quick look though under the seller's gaze showed they were in a variety of languages almost none of them Gallifreyan.

Harry looked over at the TARDIS that had over the past few microspans materialised into the form of a red two level vehicle, kicking up the grey dust around its vicinity in the process. The front stated that it was the Number 22 Putney Common.

There appeared to be some commotion within the TARDIS, with movement within it translating to the outside world, he could even make out figures within the vessel. Which indicated it was a quite old vessel, given that he could see into its inner dimensions.

Then the doors to the TARDIS opened and a figure stormed out.

"Fine Iris, I'll leave you and your _bus_ to it!" The figure who appeared to be a black and white avian-like figure shouted inside the vessel.

The individual who had a male tone looked around at the various tables which were mostly full of patrons and saw Harry watching and wandered over.

"Hey, how's it goin'?" He said in greeting. "Mind if I join ya?"

Harry smiled and nodded. "Of course, please." He said gesturing the spare seating around the table that he was seated at.

"What's good here, you seem to have made a start." He asked looking at the empty vessels that were on his table.

Harry had tried some of the foodstuffs and beverages including many so called 'ales' and 'beers' that were available here. They suggested alcohol presence, but a great quantity of alcohol was required to influence a Time Lord physiology. Though Time Lords could choose to allow the biological process to take place, to allow their bodies to become intoxicated, but in practice this required some effort.

"There's a selection here, their foodstuffs are also good." Harry said, though he couldn't really frame it against other foodstuffs, as he hadn't consumed foodstuffs from other locations on this moon.

"Probably have to order something for her" He jabbed a flipper back behind him. "She'll be angry for five minutes and then smell alcohol on the horizon and come out looking." He said looking over Harry's shoulder at the board that explained what was available.

"You're here for parts for your TARDIS?" Harry asked curiously.

The individual looked at him curiously. "Yeah, that's what Iris says, this is some kinda junkyard for them." He looked at Harry for a moment. "You a time traveller as well?"

Harry inclined his head. "It seems most people are, or traders in temporal technology."

"Frobisher by the way." He said offering him an appendage.

"Harry." He said taking it and shaking as was the custom in some situations. "So what do you think is edible?"

-/

Several further spans had elapsed since Frobisher and the person who was piloting the TARDIS had arrived and Harry was having an interesting time talking with Frobisher. It seemed Iris had picked him up while he was 'between jobs', and now wouldn't take him home.

"Not that I really care. Travelling around with her's interestin'." He turned as he no doubt heard the doors to their TARDIS open. It was an unmistakable noise, even if it was masked by the noise of the TARDIS's outer shell doors.

"She's sulking and gossiping, too many TARDISes around here. And I think the dimensional stabiliser's shorted out." She said and threw herself down into a chair to the side of Frobisher and Harry. "Looks like you've been making yourself busy, didn't you think of me?"

"I thought you'd eventually come out and face the world." Frobisher said.

"Who's your friend?" She asked looking to Harry.

"Harry, meet Iris Wildthyme." Frobisher said with a smile, He'd already told him something of Iris' personality.

Iris looked at him and to the pile of books that was beside him. "So what are you deary? Scrap dealer or companion?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Companion?"

"She means do you travel with someone like her?" Frobisher explained.

Harry nodded and then shook his head. He supposed that Marie was his companion. She had already said that she was his TARDIS and that they were bonded. TARDIS and Time Lord.

"Yes you do or yes you don't?" Iris asked him studying him curiously.

"I don't travel with someone like you." He paused. "My companion is searching for some supplies." As he was answering Iris had managed to hail someone in order to order, she paid with a credit chip he noticed.

"Supplies?" She asked as she lit a thin paper wrapped tube filled with what smelt like dried leaves.

Harry didn't see any reason to deceive the pair as they obviously travelled in a TARDIS. "The toolkit was lost so my companion has gone to look for parts and pieces to construct a new one. I or she could help with your TARDIS if you'd like?"

"You know about TARDISes?" Frobisher asked surprised.

Harry nodded. He'd not passed with the highest mark in practical temporal and TARDIS mechanics and engineering, but had an adequate mark.

Although his only knowledge of antique time vessels came from his study of Gallifreyan history and some related study on other ancient cultures' development of time travel and time travel-like development. Homeostatic time travel was of some interest to him, he'd briefly considered a practical study and might have got access to a TARDIS to do so.

"She won't let anyone I don't know mess about with her. Especially not at the moment, she's not going anywhere." She looked at him shrewdly.

It was at this point a service robot deposited the foodstuffs that Frobisher ordered, in part in anticipation of his companion's exiting of their TARDIS.

"Thought you'd appreciate a bite to eat Iris." Frobisher pushed a plate that held an ovoid of leavened bread containing a 'bacon analogue'. Harry hadn't tried it, but to his olfactory senses it smelled some what like the smoked hind quarters of a striped pig bear.

But first Iris took one of the vessels of ale and drank a hefty amount, she was almost Shobogan-like in her thirst for the liquid.

"Pissweak stuff." She commented, Harry nodded in agreement as Frobisher took a swig of his and coughed.

"You and Iris have the same taste in alcohol." He coughed wiping his mouth.

Then as Iris was finishing the bread product in a very short amount of time, something happened.

Harry looked up the same time as Iris did and they both looked at one another.

Harry _felt_ it wash over his body, a large temporal explosion had just gone off and they'd felt the temporal ripples run through the tavern. Not enough to affect local space-time but enough for Time Lords to notice.

Then Marie walked over. He immediately knew she'd dematerialised and re-materialised close by.

"We should go Harry." She said in a short clipped tone which indicated to him something drastic had happened. She only took that tone when something that affected, from her past universe or otherwise.

"This is you friend then Harry, she's..." Iris stopped as Marie looked at her. "Interesting. How are you deary?" Iris' tone shifted.

"What happened Marie?" Harry asked calmly as he rose from the seating.

"I..." Marie started and trailed off, which made Harry worry. He hadn't quite come to understand everything of Marie, especially some of her remaining memories from her previous 'life'. But some were ingrained into the fabric of her being, he suspected they were what disturbed her sometimes.

Sometimes he awoke from sleeping with terrible memories of his own, psychic leakage from her telepathic circuits.

He locked those memories deep within his mind. One day he'd section off a part of Marie's databanks and remove the memories from his mind.

Then someone shot at them, though the temporal radiation that was around their location prevented most weapons from functioning.

"We need to leave, they are attempting to prevent all vessels from escaping." Marie said in the same tone, but this time it was edged with fear. Another thing Marie seemed to have...Harry wasn't sure, wasn't sure ascribing Time Lord biological emotions to a TARDIS was right.

"Here." He said handing her his books. A flash of light followed as they disappeared within her dimensions.

"What the fuck?" Frobisher said. Harry was relatively sure it was a sexual epithet.

"Can your TARDIS leave Iris?" Harry asked as someone else fired a weapon at them Harry watched in curiosity as the weapon inverted the local space-time and folded back on itself causing a localised time loop that then folded in on itself again with a muted noise.

Iris shook her head. "What's your lady friend done to piss off the locals? The bus won't want to leave now, she's too upset that people are shooting at her." She said in an accusatory tone at Marie.

"Marie, we'll take Iris' TARDIS with us." Harry said to her. Marie looked at Iris briefly, perhaps enough for her sensors to identify her and then walked over to Iris' bus.

"You're not going in my bus!" she said rushing over to where Marie had already boarded. The doors slammed in her face.

Then she stormed back to Harry.

"What's your little miss doing with my bus?" She said jabbing a finger at him.

Harry could see Marie sitting in the cabin of Iris' TARDIS a curiously look on her face.

Then he heard the subtle tones of Marie's engines and the bus disappeared.

"What the...?" Frobisher began as the bus faded away and Marie was left standing there.

"Now, I can take you away Iris, Frobisher and once we're clear in the vortex we'll leave you and your TARDIS." Harry said as he walked over to Marie, then a gravity grenade went off above their heads. Harry felt the sudden change in gravity push him into his shoes for a moment and then Marie looked up, engaging her force fields around them.

"Where's the bus Iris?" Frobisher asked.

"Fine." Iris said grumpily, seemingly accepting his offer of a lift.

Harry nodded. "Let's go Marie." Harry said as Marie opened her arms wide and she split down her middle showing the light between her dimensions. Harry didn't wait for Frobisher and Iris to walk in, he just went into Marie's control room and hoped they would follow.

"What the frak Iris? I thought your bus was weird but this chick she split in half!" Frobisher appeared to be having some difficulty accepting Marie's inner dimensions.

"This brings a new dimension deary to the idea of travelling companion. You didn't say she was your TARDIS." Iris said looking around. "And you've got the dear old bus here too." She beamed as she saw the bus was located off to one side. Marie had manipulated her dimensions to allow the bus within the control room.

"Marie what's happening?" Harry asked as he went over the console. Marie was still being somewhat non-communicative.

Then he heard it. Marie had fired her weapons.

"Marie!" Harry exclaimed as he took charge of the controls. "Dematerialising in 2, 1." Harry pulled the controls the the time rotor began to move and then a tone sounded. Looking at the holographic screens around the console he recognised what whoever near them had done; Transduction shielding preventing them from leaving.

"Marie!" Harry shouted again.

"What're you doing?" Iris was at the console looking around. "New model I see." She paused looking at one part of the console that he mostly had deactivated.

The readings were indicating the shielding would be at very high levels in a few microspans.

"Marie." Harry said in a neutral tone as he went to that panel and pushed a slider across; activating it. "Weapons active, prepare to engage."

"Weapons?!" Frobisher exclaimed.

"Best hold tight chuck, this chick isn't just a TARDIS." Iris muttered to her companion.

"I bet, she just split in half and we're standing inside her. Are all you lot this weird?" He asked looking around him.

"Marie, stand by to fire to disrupt transduction shielding."

"Ready." She said in the calm tone as though she was reading a signpost.

Harry prepped the dematerialisation, reconfiguring the coordinates for a particular slice of the vortex that wasn't covered as frequently by the shield cycles. "Fire." He said as he began the dematerialisation sequence.

"Firing." Marie said in a calm tone.

The control room was filled with the dematerialisation noise as they felt the impact of Marie's weapons around them and they slipped into the vortex.

"Are we safe?" Frobisher asked after a moment of silence as Harry and Iris read the data on the holographic screens around the base of the time rotor.

"Two TARDISes on intercept course." Iris said with a frown.

"Badly piloted." Harry mused, he'd seen simulations of how to fly TARDISes in formation, this wasn't any of those.

Then another tone went off and the scanner flashed into life. It showed 4 time torpedoes flying towards them.

Harry reached around the console and shoved a slider to full. "Deflectors at maximum." There was a shudder throughout the control room.

Then Harry noticed it on the scanner, another TARDIS re-mapping its inner dimensions out across several of the more obscure dimensions trying to outflank them.

"Marie." Harry paused, heavily as he knew that his next order would likely be certain death or exile to the vortex for the pilots of the TARDISes, but considering how badly and malfunctioning they were according to the sensors, perhaps they weren't Time Lords. "Prepare to fire on all targets."

"Harry?" Iris looked at him questioningly.

"Fire." Harry said as he took the controls of the console, as Marie fired and ripped the TARDISes pursuing them to shreds he manoeuvred her around and collected the databanks of the TARDISes.

He would analyse them later and deliver them back to Gallifrey, when he next returned there.

Then he set the controls for Marie to drift deeper into the vortex away from their entry point into from the Time Junkyard.

"Marie?" Harry said in a neutral tone.

In the scanner her figure appeared though she seemed trouble. "I...Harry." She started. Harry shook his head. "Focus on repairs." Harry said, he could sense whatever had happened was something rooted deep in Marie's memories or possibly even an instinctual response.

"Minor damage throughout my external shell and defensive systems." She reported before the image flickered away.

"What the hell was that all about?" Frobisher said after a moment of silence as Harry made his way back to the console and deactivated the panel that held the weapons.

Harry wasn't sure how to explain it to him so he just looked at Iris and hoped she'd understand.

"Just like the dear old bus has her funny turns I think this" She paused. "TARDIS has her quirks. It's funny in its own way Frobisher."

"The bus doesn't have secret weapons systems? We could have used those against the Daleks." He muttered. "I need a drink." He sighed.

Harry directed him to an alcove across from the console, which was now due to the presence of Iris's TARDIS on the other side of it. It contained a food facility and several food and drink stuffs. There were larger kitchens and other facilities deeper within Marie's dimensions but Harry did not think Frobisher wished to leave the vicinity of Iris's TARDIS.

"While Marie regenerates and repairs perhaps I could assist with any repairs your TARDIS might need?" Harry asked in a calm tone to Iris.

"You? You know something about my bus?" She seemed shocked. "I don't want any so and so poking around."

Harry smiled. "I did pass, although not with the highest mark in temporal engineering. I could just pass you tools and supplies." Harry nodded towards where Marie had obviously deposited the tools she'd acquired before everything started.

Iris beamed at him and took him arm in arm. "That's what I like to hear chuck, it's the subjects that we don't pass where we're best put to work."

-/

Harry knew how many spans had passed, but didn't wish to actively consider it. The front of Iris's TARDIS the 'cab' where she could sit and 'drive' and interact with the outershell of her TARDIS contained much of the console, but there were other pieces tucked under the footwell and under floor of the bus.

It was incredible, he couldn't fathom what type of TARDIS this was. It was older than any he'd seen in the archives.

"This is a wonderful TARDIS Iris." He said, finally able to externalise his thoughts. For the first couple hundred or so microspans he had been at work assisting Iris give her TARDIS a 'service'.

She had suggested that her TARDIS, her 'bus' didn't like her poking around some of the time, and often didn't like to sit still, or when it did it liked to muse to itself. Being here within his TARDIS, within Marie her bus was at peace. Though its telepathic circuits were engaged, but that was to be expected whenever two or more TARDISes came into close proximity there was often some form of communication.

Iris snorted. "I'll tell your brother you think that, nothing but bad words about my bus. But say something about that TARDIS of his and ooh, he gets his knickers in a twist."

Harry pulled himself up from the force field array which appeared to be held to the bus's shell by rope. He looked over to Iris. "You know my brother?"

Iris beamed. Of course. She said his name and then added. "But he gets around calling himself the Doctor now. Won't be heard called anything else."

Harry grinned. "He was always doing that Theta Sigma, that was his nickname." Harry paused and leaned against one of the trunks that Iris had pushed aside so they could gain access to the bus's various components. "Now he's the Doctor, all of the time?"

"And you Harry, feel like taking a nickname?" Iris asked.

Harry shook his head. "I think I'll always be Harry Potter, even if I have to regenerate." He knew of Time Lords who when they regenerated took on new names. Though he also knew of Time Lords who kept the same face, the same body when they regenerated. It had been something he'd been interested in, but he hoped wouldn't have to know of it very soon.

"Good. We've got to stick together. Us time travellers, adventurers with proper names. Not 'the Doctor' or..." She trailed off. "Others like that chappy with the penis substitute, the Doctor's brother."

"Koschei?" Harry asked her curiously.

Iris shook her head. "There I go, blabbing away, different time streams, you're too young." She pushed herself up. "Time for a drink for us, we've been working for hours. I'm going to make you a cocktail. Something better than that pig bear swill they were serving." She moved past him to a cupboard that contained several beverages.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Frobisher woke up and looked around himself. He was inside a TARDIS, he could tell by the background hum that was always present. Even in Iris's bus it was there, usually when he was in the shower.

He could hear music, one of Iris' god awful cassettes, well, he only said that to rile her, he didn't mind a lot of ancient Earth music.

Better than the music written just to score more mazumas in the charts.

Then as he looked in front of him and saw the bottles of really excellent alcohol, he realised, as reality swept back into view like a big wave along a beach.

The chick. The chick that was a TARDIS, that he was inside of, and how that bloke just seemed to think it was normal.

And Iris, her bus was in there too.

Frobisher was quite sure he hadn't been doing any hard drugs recently, and if he had he was swearing off them.

Or maybe he should get back on them, reality was getting too weird.

"Come on sleepy head, up ya get, Aunty Iris and her new friend have fixed the old bus up." It was Iris' voice but she was far too cheery.

Frobisher realised the music had cut off at some point.

"Oi, Frobisher, get up!" Someone slapped his flipper.

Then he turned and Iris was standing there looking much more chipper than she had in a while.

"Iris?"

"The bus is fixed, better than the last time the Doctor got his grubby hands on her innards." She said as she reached forward and sniffed his empty cup and whistled. "That you're conscious means you've learnt much under my instruction."

Frobisher pulled himself up. "How to drink while you're making a racket you mean?"

Iris sniffed at him but she was still in good cheer. "Cheeky. Come on."

As he got up and followed Iris around to the other side of the bus where Harry was standing by his console.

"So how are we getting out?" He asked. "You demateralising or something?"

"Look at you Frobisher, using all the terms." Iris said proudly.

"With a hangover." He muttered.

"I'm just using the architectural configuration which means you can drive out under your own power Iris." Harry said from the console where he was typing in commands at one of the panels.

"Nice work Harry." Iris slapped him on the back and then looked at him. "Now you take care of yourself and we'll meet up, have a drink and lunch."

Harry looked confused. "How will I know when?"

Iris beamed at him. "I'll leave you a message sweetie." She then kissed him on the cheek and went off towards her bus.

Frobisher offered him a flipper. Harry took it. "Nice meeting you mate. Weird." He shook his head and turned as Iris started her bus.

Operating the doors the architectural configuration reformatted the doorway opening allowing Iris to drive her bus out.

In a cloud of chronons and dust Iris' bus moved out of his control room and out into the vortex.

Then there was a beep from the communications and Harry pushed a button. In the scanner if showed Iris and Frobisher from the point of view of her scanner. "Thank you deary!" She waved and then the signal faded to static.

Harry smiled.

Now, though he had something else to do, but first sleep.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

Harry leaned back into the chair. The room wasn't a zero room. He knew Marie had more than one within her dimensions, but he found zero rooms too relaxing. He needed to keep his telepathic abilities active during this process. Though he could do so in almost any situation given enough effort he also wanted to be as relaxed and not prone to any outbursts when he did what he was about to do.

The room was a small study, though its shelves like much of the main library were empty. Marie's entry into this universe or what happened in her universe meant much of her internal dimensions vented, aside from her control room he was relatively sure there weren't many things from her interior dimensions from her original universe left.

Harry closed his eyes and opened his senses to his TARDIS's, seeking out the telepathic circuits.

Again he could do this by standing at the console with his hands on her telepathic circuits, but he felt more comfortable doing this slouched in this chair. It was a very small amount of effort to not be at the console, though not much and on balance it was worth it to be here and seated.

Harry felt her telepathic connection waiting and braced himself as he was drawn into her memories and found himself standing on the moon where they had just left.

He looked around and saw Marie walking through.

He knew this was a constructed reality of a memory. Like being in the Matrix. Even Time Lords couldn't process all the senses that a TARDIS experienced. This was a filtered constructed reality that he could process the memory through. It displayed a small amount of what Marie actually experienced when she was there.

Harry watched as she purchased several items, much of the transactions were done through some non-verbal communication, subtle movements in body language or telepathic gestures that he could feel Marie blocking and reciprocating when the correct response was needed.

Then the experienced memory changed, he _felt_ it, a change in the air temperature around him and then a rise in temperature.

It wasn't what he expected from a TARDIS's memory, this seemed to be a fear response.

The seller was it seemed just selling random TARDIS parts, some old type 30 dimensional stabilisers, a food machine, some other parts for accessing the real world interface on some slightly newer models of TARDIS.

-/

Then Harry saw it, sitting behind the seller's stall, he wasn't sure what it was, but the sight of it seemed to rebel against his perception. Not like a perception filter, it was like the antithesis of a perception filter, rather unlike a Time Lord's interface with the timelines, it was a rejection of that.

He came to realise quite quickly this, or at least some of these sensations were just a small facet of the reactions Marie would have had to it, to seeing it. Though at this point he couldn't identify what it was.

The trader it seemed noted that Marie had noticed it and then looked at her oddly, removing something from under the table.

He knew what they were, they were a bulky form of the restraint used on Marie; dwarf star alloy manacles. Then everything around him changed and he _felt _it. The instinctual reaction as Marie's weapon systems fired. Obliterating the trader and the everything near him; vaporised. Almost from what he had read of it, a demat-gun type of explosion, and then he felt the eyes of everyone on Marie.

-/

Harry opened his eyes and paused. Calming his thoughts as he settled his telepathic pathways down from the experience.

Then he walked to the control room where Marie and he could converse face to face as it were.

Elsewhere within her dimensions she couldn't, in some places she'd had to ring her cloisters to get his attention.

Walking into the control room he made his way to the 'kitchen' that was what Iris called it, making himself a mug of dried leaves in boiled water. This 'tea' was something he remembered his mother enjoying and his father also finding its flavour pleasing, wrapping his hands around the vessel and smelling the steam he was reminded when he was younger. On the shores of Lake Abydos, his brother jumping after the singing fish. He just liked to swim and let the singing fish sing to him as they swum away from his brother who was laughing throughout the experience.

Harry closed his eyes and took a sip enjoying the sharp tannins. It was a parting gift from Iris to thank him for his help, and a glorious one filled with memories and joy.

Then he brought himself back to the issues at hand at the moment.

Marie must have sensed this as she appeared in the scanner. It was how she and himself conversed when he needed to. After their first meeting when she presented herself as a holographic representation, she had not done so again, instead presenting an image in the scanner or as simply a voice in the control room.

"What was that object?" Harry asked setting the mug of tea on the side of the console so he could look at her, her representation in the scanner. "It was..." Harry shook his head trying to describe it. It had been a feeling of...he wasn't sure. The sensations and feelings of a TARDIS even filtered were very often at odds with most beings, even Time Lords.

"You reacted, it was almost instinctual." Harry continued as he shut his eyes and looked to Marie. His TARDIS. "What was it and what happened?" He asked, determined to ask concise questions. If this were any other TARDIS he would...he would be going through its diagnostics and its logs, the memories and sensor analysis. But a Time Lord's relationship with their TARDIS was unique. With himself and Marie even more so. Most Time Lords would speak with their TARDIS, verbally, mentally, physically in the ways they interacted with their craft and piloted. Few could converse with one another as he could with Marie.

Marie looked back at him, seemingly composing herself. "The device you witnessed is used by agents of the Enemy in the War." Marie said, revealing little information as she spoke. But it was how she said it, what Harry could read from her that caused him sudden worry and concern.

"This is from your timeline, your universe?" He asked of her. She nodded.

"I...am...My systems reacted instinctually." Marie said simply.

"To the possibility of restraint or the device?" Harry asked in a calm but serious tone. He knew Marie held within her psychological issues that had not been resolved. But he also would not avoid the issue if it was going to endanger him or her.

Marie's expression did not change but he felt her systems alter slightly in reaction to his question.

"The dwarf star alloy restraints would not have held me long. My systems are at practically full power now Harry."

Harry nodded taking on the information.

"Was the device from within your dimensions, prior to your transversing through the dimensions to this timeline and universe?" Harry asked.

Marie paused, seemingly thinking, but Harry suspected she knew the answer immediately as he had considered it. In actuality he was sure the moment the incident had occurred it would have been one of the many processes she would have run. The pause may have been for his benefit, an aid to interacting with Time Lords and other sentients who could not, would never in fact think at the speed or through the various dimensions and possibilities that a TARDIS could.

"Many of my systems' core memories were corrupted when I passed into this universe." She paused. "But that device was not storied within my dimensions."

Harry considered this for a moment. "Is this from someone travelling here?"

Marie inclined her head. "No Harry. I believe it was from experiments carried out on both sides. CVEs, black holes, worm holes, dimensional warping and other facilities were employed during the war. I believe it was a result of one of these experiments that the device passed through to our universe."

"I see." Harry thought on this. "There must be history of this having occurred in the past." He mused to himself, there would be texts that he could review. Things recorded, either on Gallifrey or elsewhere.

"It may not be the only thing that has come to this universe, there could be other things, from other universes." Marie added interrupting his thoughts.

"Could be." Harry repeated, it was an answer of a TARDIS the possibility that there might be more.

"Next time, if there is a next time, interrogate before you disintegrate the person." Harry ordered. "We still need places we can go, I think that moon is off limits for a while though."

"Yes Harry." Marie acknowledged.

-/

A/N:

_Frobisher and Iris Wildthyme; two of my favourite characters of non-TV __**Doctor Who**__. Frobisher's a shape shifting detective who gets around looking like a penguin and Iris Wildthyme is transtemporal adventuress extraordinaire. _

_If last chapter was the movie length feature, this was the following episode. With a smaller budget, shot in a quarry and using standing sets. But with good CGI._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Harry sat at a large desk, it was unlike his study on Gallifrey, but the scents, the feel of the woodwork; that of a thousand years or more. That sense in this place that many scholars, seekers of knowledge had passed through its mighty doors and sat here, to understand history, that was familiar to him.

The Monks of Felsecar held one of the most ancient libraries in the universe. Its section on Gallifrey and her history could consume lifetimes of research. Fortunately there were only several subjects that Harry found himself interested.

In front of him was a simple journal bound in animal hide that he had purchased prior to setting the coordinates for this location. The writing instrument, the gift from his mother lay on top of it.

He had intended to continue to research further on the founders of Gallifrey, their statues in the Panopticon always awed him. Their lives were always a curiosity for him.

Though not Omega, at least not when Savar was around. Savar's own investigations into Omega had left him so damaged that some Time Lords still suspected him of danger even a regeneration or two since those events had passed.

Omega's work had also been especially well documented and had been distilled so even a Time Tot knew his place in Gallifrey's history. Albeit they were limited in their tales of his work.

That too of Rassilon, his exploits, his travels and 'adventures' - so his brother called them, were well known. Many stories were told of Rassilon, the truth was muddied. Some said a copy of his mind lived on in the Matrix, though only Presidents and the dead really knew what lay within the Matrix. Harry had also read something of the Dark Tower, but the texts concerning that and the Games that were played around it had been excised from the archives on Gallifrey.

Harry looked up at the very high ceiling and smiled in recollection, his brother loved to tell him stories, from where he'd heard them Harry didn't know. He'd told Harry of the Games played in the Death Zone _"Rassilon's Games Harry, I heard they brought in aliens to roam around the Death Zone, our ancestors!"_ his brother's eyes alight with the possibility of danger and excitement. He had heard from Koschei that his brother had tried to go to the Death Zone, only to find out that it could only be accessed via time-scoop. The one used for the Games it was said.

Harry had intended to come researching Pandak, Apeiron and Eutenoyar, but had come across something far more interesting.

The Eternal War against the Yssgaroth.

General Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu's part in the war was legend, so Ordinal General Quences claimed a friend of his in a neighbouring house, or rather their family knew him before he was a general said. It was close to information on Gallifrey's early history. General Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu's part in the Eternal War was practically lost to legend and myth.

Harry knew that Rassilon and Omega's early work with black holes wrought havoc on the universe.

But the specifics of the results of these experiments had been expunged from the archives. Scant information still existed collected in the Matrix, but unless you were President its access was limited. Harry did know of several students at the Academy that utilised unauthorised access to gain access to the Matrix or to insert their mind into the APCNet. Although access was rarely granted to those who had not regenerated, and those who attempted it often started a pre-regenerative crisis.

The Eternal War was just one of the wars whose inhabitants came from another universe. He had heard of stories of the pre-universe and the inhabitants that escaped its destruction into the current universe. These entities still retained significant powers and the horrors of which his brother found both fascinating and exciting. Harry had always found interest in these 'horror' his brother would mention, but not drawn to them as his brother was. His brother had once teased him about founders' statues, and suggested that they might be the 'silent assassins', those quantum locked beings from the beginning of the universe. Such beings and their innate manipulation of time were rightly feared, they were anathema to the Time Lords. But not something like the Great Vampires that they were compelled to seek out and eradicate. Those quantum locked beings; the 'lonely assassins' were the fauna of temporal beings. Interactions with them were mostly restricted to non-temporally active species.

Regarding the Yssgaroth, Harry suspected that that the Yssgaroth shared abilities with beings from the pre-universe or like the lonely assassins just after, when powers and abilities, the way with the universe was still malleable.

He had followed this line of information with curiosity, wondering to himself if the device Marie destroyed really was from her inaccessible parallel timeline, brought forth by the explosion that brought her to his timeline, or if it was something of a similar construction but from an alternate universe.

It was possible. Though it was just as likely, that some things may have 'fallen' between universes when Marie was thrust into this timeline.

Entrances and passages between timelines closed quite rapidly, the vortex, universes and the timelines abhorred schisms as such it required a huge amount of energy to breach parallel timelines. A destruction of a regular planet should not have been enough to do it.

Although Marie had implied, obliquely that nothing in the war that she was involved in was regular.

Harry knew from the dreams, the nightmares that he felt through her that it most certainly was not.

-/

Harry shook his head and tapped the writing device, on the page and frowned to himself.

Too many thoughts in his mind had made him lose the string of thought that he was following.

General Kopyion Liall a Mahajetsu and the Eternal War could be saved for another day, another time when he wished to explore what happened during the time against the Yssgaroth.

Replacing the book and writing implement into his bag he decided to leave the Library, he had allowed himself to become too distracted with all the possibilities for research and discovery.

The whole universe and the vortex to explore and he couldn't decide where to begin and what to discover first.

Harry suspected that was where his brother held an advantage over him. His brother was likely just happy to be away from Gallifrey, from the Time Lords and Gallifreyans; they who were content to watch the universe, interacting only when they deemed necessary for trade, diplomacy and whatever else the Lord President and the agencies of Gallifrey deemed necessary for the running functioning of society.

Harry at one point thought he would be like them, content to remain on Gallifrey, but then when his brother and others left he began to have thoughts like them.

Then everything changed again upon his contact with Marie.

He considered it a good thing that he had met her. Had he not her fate would have been destruction.

-/

Harry paused in his musings to place the books onto the trolley at the end of the shelves. It was one of the rules of the Library of Felsecar; to not re-shelve the books. Even if you had merely removed the books from the shelf briefly. One could become lost in thought and replace them by mistake elsewhere.

It was as he replaced the books and was walking towards the end of the row of shelves he heard it.

Or rather he didn't, he felt _something_, something on the upper ranges of the tele-psychic range.

It wasn't something he felt often, not consciously. He knew he had the abilities, quite advanced compared to most Gallifreyans for telepathy and telekinesis, theoretically at least.

But he did not expect to feel anything within this Library, although he knew that many objects could retain an imprint of locations, temporal activity, even emotions.

The Library here had a null affect on their properties, in part if was due to the planet's unique properties and how the Library was constructed, it made it perfect for a library. The books contained here would last for millennia, even more than that. Even taken away from this location they would retain the properties of the Library for hundreds of years. It was part of what made bequeathing books to the Library so unique.

Harry opened his psychic abilities and breathed in the sensations of the library as he allowed his body to move in response to his to his senses, his immediate awareness shut off as he focused on moving towards his destination.

-/

Harry wasn't sure how he had arrived at the shelf he was standing in front of; there were at least two sets of stairs separating him from where he had begun and he was only minority aware of the journey here, more focused on this destination.

Now he was standing before a bookshelf, the spines of the books on it seemed to indicate that their subjects were related to genetically inherited biomorphic abilities in the oceans of planets that orbit red giants.

The book he was staring at didn't have any conventional title on the spine, there was something that had been written in ultraviolet, but it was far too worn to be able to read.

Reaching forward he plucked the book off the shelf and opened it.

It was then he felt it; a telepathic assault that he'd never felt before. His psychic abilities he knew were advanced even for a lot of Time Lords, though he also knew he was somewhat untrained in them. But he recognised the force of the telepathic assault coming from the book, wishing to impart something to him.

At some point, though he wasn't sure how long had passed he felt a rustling of wind, which was odd, the Library breathed, but there was no wind no rush of air from the outside, save the foyer as you entered the building.

There was also a sound, the rushing of materialising and then darkness.

-/

Marie stood in the courtyard, watching, waiting, scanning the local environment. The Monks of Felsecar did not like TARDISes to materialise within their library. Although there was nothing precisely that would prevent her from doing so, it was an agreement that Harry abided by. Harry and many other travellers to the library abided by the rules of the Monks of Felsecar, for they held and maintained one of the greatest libraries in the universe.

Harry genuinely enjoyed research and the discovery of knowledge, it was part of what she had done in her existence in the previous timeline, Marie remembered that much. Intelligence gathering was part of the war effort, a major part given how much temporal manipulation the Enemy used.

Here though she had merely to watch and wait for Harry, her Time Lord to return from his researches.

She had watched an arachnid climb over her outershell, it would be burned off should she need to enter the vortex. She had plotted its whole timeline in the the time it took a humanoid to exhale. A small insignificant being.

Then, after many hours she felt it, a sharp arc through her telepathic circuits, Harry had received a high telepathic interception from something within the library.

Her HADS engaged and she dematerialised, rematerialising within the library, her engines casting a breeze within local environment.

Harry was lying unconscious, there was still significant telepathic fallout in the general area.

Marie paused for no time perceivable, given the level of telepathic fallout it would be safest to wake Harry before bringing him within her dimensions.

Reaching down she pulled him into a sitting position.

"Harry." She said above regular level.

-/

Someone was calling his name he realised, and holding him in a hard grip.

Blinking the world formed back into focus and he saw Marie squatting before him.

"Marie?" He whispered.

"There was a significant telepathic assault." She reported.

"Book..." He said.

Marie looked away from him, focusing on something. "I have it."

"Bag?" Harry asked as he pulled himself up. Marie had retrieved it from where it had fallen as Harry attempted to order his thoughts, there were a series of numbers in his mind, fallout from the telepathic contact.

"Okay." He said as Marie handed him the bag. "Book." He said she raised a slight eyebrow at him as he took, though did not open the book. "Open up, let's go." He said as he could feel his headache increasing to mammoth proportions.

As Marie spread her arms apart allowing him access he heard the rushed footsteps of the Monks as he stepped within Marie.

Harry walked into the console room and placed the book in one of the alcoves where he'd come to sit often while he considered where to set the coordinates for.

Then he moved swiftly to the console, dematerialising Marie. Setting course merely for the vortex, it was, he'd come to know where she felt most comfortable, and it was the best place to go while he mused and tried to rid himself of the headache that was continuing to remain within his mind.

But once he placed the book down on the table in the alcove where the food machine lay, he found himself walking over to the coordinate entry panel of the console and entering a set of coordinates. He only acknowledged to himself halfway through the process that they had come from the book.

"Check the coordinates for me Marie." Harry said as he walked carefully, gently back to where the book was and began to fix himself a cup of tea. He had found that it had an ability to calm his mind when he did not want to resort to medicines.

The tea did not help to lessen the headache; a result of the extreme telepathic contact but did offer some distraction from it and it allowed him to rebuild his telepathic barriers, which he hoped would remove some of the pain.

As he warmed his hands on the cup he suddenly realised something. "How did you find me?" Harry said aloud looking over to the scanner where Marie usually manifested herself.

"My Hostile Action Displacement System. I registered a high level telepathic assault." Marie responded.

Harry nodded, he had only heard of the Hostile Action Displacement System, the HADS in a TARDIS being activated to prevent TARDISes being in situations where it might be hazardous for the pilot to return to it. Not TARDISes seeking out a danger because the pilot was within reach of the danger.

It was interesting. To have something like that ready to swoop in.

"I have the placed the temporal and spacial coordinates." Marie announced as Harry continued to muse to himself. His headache was lessening now though he continued to eye the book with some suspicion as he went over to the console so check the secondary displays there.

The coordinates were for a planet in a star system in the Acteon Galaxy. It wasn't a galaxy he was overly familiar with, he had read something whilst researching psychic powers that the Acteon Galaxy held several planets with naturally occurring elements that enhanced certain abilities. Although the text was very vague and might have been confusing galaxy with other astronomical terms.

From Marie's data, which she had even admitted was not what it had once been due mostly in part to her journey into this timeline. But there was enough basic astronomical data here to identify the system. The coordinates were for the fourth planet from the yellow-white main sequence star. According to the coordinates Marie had placed the specifics as being in the upper hemisphere of the planet.

Before he had really begun to think about it he started to move around the console, keying in the coordinates and engaging Marie's engines.

It was a relatively short flight, as he didn't leave the console, but problems began as he attempted to rematerialise.

As he pulled the leavers on the console for the final rematerialisation he felt a hard resistance to re-materialisation.

"That's not good." Harry said aloud as he looked at the readings, there were steadily rising parachronic levels and intermittent chronon particles.

Walking around the console he redistributed power and tried and again, then the lights flickered around him and he got a similar response.

He didn't bother to ask Marie, in times when they were in flight and during materialisation TARDISes were doing a multitude of things, and while she was able to converse during these times, he knew the console communicated everything that was relating to the TARDIS function and flight.

He boosted the outer shields and attempted another materialisation; then something exploded from the console, Harry glared at the temporal buffers and altered the coordinates to planetary orbit and once more tried for a materialisation.

This time he was able to rematerialise Marie and then refocus her sensors on the planet below.

There was evidence of particles of strange matter, bonded helium 2 dwarf star matter which were aiding the generation of a parachonric sub-strata in the atmosphere of the planet. It meant it would be quite hard to travel materialise a TARDIS on the planet. Though theoretically once there Marie could recalibrate her outer shell using he elements of the atmosphere.

Harry posited as much to her as he studied the readings.

"That is possible Harry. I faced many such anomalies..." She paused. She did not do that often but Harry had come to know that these times were when she either had little memory of the event or it was a buried or traumatic memory. He had come to know that a lot of Marie's memories were traumatic, he had learnt not to experience them when her memories bombarded him in the night.

Then she seemed to snap back, the gap was thousandths of a microspan in length, but he noticed. "In the past complications were awry in the universe and the vortex."

"We could get a spacecraft and transport it there. The planet appears to have a population." Harry mused looking at the sensor readings.

"The levels in the atmosphere would likely disable a Time Lord during passage unshielded through the atmosphere. The parachronic levels are extreme." Marie reported.

"On the surface though?" Harry asked looking over to Marie's representation in the scanner.

Marie paused for the slightest portion of a microspan. "Relatively safe, unless there is instances of solar flares or other phenomena, then exposure would be higher."

"And operating your chameleon circuit to travel through the atmosphere won't work because under that duress you'd need to concentrate power on protecting me and your systems." Harry surmised as he recalled his Academy studies.

"That is correct Harry." Marie replied.

Harry walked back over to the book. The cover was still quite worn, but now within the even lighting of the TARDIS he could just about make out the lettering. It was High Gallifreyan and was written in a wavelength that few could see. Gallifreyans were one, it said 'Cult of the Time Lords'. Carefully he opened the cover once more.

Now though, there was still a lingering sense of psychic energy, but the pages were blank, there didn't appear to have been anything written on them.

"Can you enter the atmosphere Marie without dematerialising, and we will just fall onto the planet?" Harry asked. The inner and outershells of a TARDIS were in different dimensions, closely tied but separate so the impact when they came to on the surface would not affect him. Or Marie for that matter. But only a handful of things could affect Marie or any TARDIS.

Marie was silent for more time than usual. "Yes. There may be considerable disruption within my interior dimensions. I will likely not be able to communicate until I have recalibrated my systems when I am on the surface."

"The control room will remain intact?" Harry asked.

"Yes. The control room is isolated from the other locations within my dimensions. It will remain intact." Marie answered carefully.

Harry knew in a situation like this there would still be considerable disruption even within the console room, but it would not be lethally threatening.

Looking to Marie's representation in the scanner he nodded. "Very well, let us see where this message leads." Harry said as he made his way around the console, priming Marie's engines for space flight and starting the calculations for atmospheric insertion.

-/

Harry gritted his teeth as he gripped the side of the console, the harness he'd found in amongst the clothing was only slightly preventing him from being flung around the console room as Marie descended through the planet's atmosphere.

Then there was a moment a sensation of zero gravity as Marie fell into the atmosphere, the friction against her outershell ceasing.

Now that they were through the atmosphere Harry pulled himself around the console to use Marie's sensors to establish what the planet was like.

Atmosphere was good for carbon based life forms, with approximately 85 percent nitrogen with oxygen making up the rest and minute quantities of other elements.

It was now, also that the noise of transitioning through the atmosphere that he could hear the strain on Marie's engines. Harry moved around to check the power readings, they were still within tolerances, but he could still feel the strain. Marie would adjust though, once they were landed.

Turning the sensors towards the landing site they were aiming for; a short distance from the precise coordinates Harry began to frown.

There appeared to have been significant precipitation recently, and the surface appeared to be considerably softer than his initial assumption based on Marie's sensors.

He had assumed that Marie would strike the surface, penetrating a distance that would not take long for him to extract himself from. But the texture and density of the surface was far looser than he had presumed.

If he did not alter their speed it would take an unfeasibly long time to extract himself from the hole that Marie would tunnel through when she impacted the surface.

Harry forced himself to pause and focus as a well of panic arose. If he had to remain within Marie her recalibration process would take far longer and due to her many systems that would be offline during the calibration process time would pass one to one with the outside world and he had a time and space coordinates to keep, down to the microspan.

As he calmed himself he recalled his mother, and sometimes his father telling him of other civilisations and their progress towards simple atmospheric flight. They the sometimes used device that used drag to slow an object's passage through an atmosphere to well below terminal velocity.

Still gripping the console, more through panic than need he moved around to the chameleon circuit entry panel and swiped his hand over the controls giving him access to search through its systems. He hoped he could add a small addition to Marie's outershell, something which would not be a full activation of her chameleon circuit.

He grinned to himself as he found something that appeared to be what his mother had described to him.

Marie hadn't noticed. There were countless things she would be monitoring as they continued to fall. A TARDIS monitored things well outside the normal perceptions of a Time Lord.

But as they continued to fall Harry didn't notice a change in their velocity. Harry moved quickly around to the telepathic circuits and shoved both palms onto the touch plates.

_Marie, pull the straps._ He thought, though his actual telepathic thoughts were far more complicated than that, but his focused idea was what he knew from the idea of a 'parachute'.

-/

Marie blinked, as she felt something against her telepathic circuits. A message from Harry.

It was then that she realised he had enacted her chameleon circuit to add something minor to her outershell.

A pack, with straps on the front, his direction was to pull them.

Marie reached up as the atmosphere continued to pass around her and pulled.

A large piece of what would seem to simpler lifeforms to be material unfurled immediately slowing her descent through the atmosphere.

It was a simple solution to the descent speed issue.

-/

Then after an indeterminate amount of time the whole control room shuddered and he was almost wrenched away from the console again, it was then that he realised that their downward speed had slowed.

With a slight thump he felt it, they had landed on the surface.

Then most of the lights winked out and he was bathed in the neutral tones of Marie's emergency lighting. There were single beams of light on each of the alcoves around the console.

As he unhooked himself from the console and remove the the harness he walked over to the now quite disturbed clothing area and pulled on a coat that he had found to be useful when exploring outside of the TARDIS's dimensions.

Then as he was about to make his way over to the doors a second light turned on, it was above the alcove that was opposite Marie's weapons systems, and it too held personal weapons. Personal side arms and other such weaponry. He never really thought to take weapons, but it seemed that Marie was insisting as a third lit up above him.

Harry sighed and looked around the control room, Marie couldn't manifest herself, not until she'd recalibrated so this was all she could do.

Harry chose a Gallifreyan staser, the holster which he strapped to his thigh and the weapon itself both had perception filters which would prevent most humanoids from viewing it.

He paused in another alcove to take a portable scanner in order to locate the precise coordinates from the book.

Walking up to the doors, they didn't open, Marie wasn't aware of everything within her dimensions Harry mused as he walked the few steps back to the console and operated the door mechanism; and pulled a leaver.

Harry didn't attempt to communicate with Marie; she had her eyes closed and a neutral expression.

Judging from where they had landed; in a large grassed area the coordinates were in a slightly built up area that would take him only a short period to walk to, it seemed to be the distance or a little more of the diameter of the Panopticon.

-/

The coordinates were within a large industrial building, from the sounds and the line of people it appeared to have been repurposed for a cultural event.

Harry was glad he had some currency within this coat, though he also used some mental persuasion that he had learnt from Koschei to gain entry more swiftly.

From the gyrating bodies he assumed the sounds were music, though it was rising and falling throughout the audible spectrum even approaching levels that only Time Lords and a handful of other species could hear.

The music was oscillating throughout the audible spectrum, but especially through the lower frequencies, and seemingly pausing and continuing to progress though its shifting.

The crowd appeared to be enjoying it and were far too caught in their own experiences to pay him any heed as he made his way through the assembled humanoids as he glanced at his scanner.

Finally after being jostled somewhat by many excited individuals he found he was in the correct spacial coorindates, the temporal ones he would need to wait several further microspans for.

Harry spent the time feeling his way through the music, it was rather interesting, the volume would he assumed be doing some damage to many of the humanoids, but he was able to isolate the various frequencies and enjoy the composing that the music producer had done to create such a wildly layered piece of music.

Then he noticed it, buried within the musical layers was a telepathic subwave, intermittent, but present, and difficult to notice, it seemed, he could feel it, almost, from the various waves of sound that were pulsing through the air, but it was something more.

As he was managing to grab it, someone stepped into his field of vision.

Harry looked up at the taller man who smiled a wild smile and offered him his hand.

"Hello. I see someone found my book." Harry heard the man's voice as he took his hand and it was only as they were holding each other's in a handshake that he realised that the man had not spoken. He had broadcast it, telepathically, though directed through touch.

"I did." Harry said, also telepathically, which seemed to surprise the man.

The man was wearing a shirt that was open, Harry could see a tattoo on his chest, he could also feel the double pulse of a Time Lord.

Harry assumed, by where the man's fingers were that he was searching for one on Harry.

"First body?" The man asked. Harry nodded. He would not gain a second heart until he regenerated, or passed through a maturation chamber on Gallifrey where they could artificially stimulate the process, but it was a distinctly unpleasant process to go through he had heard. Regeneration was preferable.

The tattoo was interesting, the only instance he knew of of Time Lords having tattoos were those in exile; they were marked by the High Council.

The man must have seen him studying. "I'm not an exile. I just like it." He said tapping the tattoo.

Harry let go of the man's hand and shrugged. "I was just curious." He said, still telepathically. The man raised an eyebrow. While Time Lords could communicate telepathically it was evident by his surprise that Harry could do so without physical contact.

"I'm the Corsair." He said grinning.

"Harry Potter." Harry replied.

"So you found my book, what'd you think?" The man, the Corsair asked.

"Interesting, it gave me a headache." Harry said honesty.

The Corsair laughed out loud. "An honest Time Lord. I like you Harry Potter." Then he offered Harry his hand again.

Harry eyed him for a moment before taking it again. "It was nice to meet someone. If you can find me, maybe we'll chat further." The Corsair said.

Then something started to happen, Harry felt it; a psychic change in the Corsair and he made to let go of Harry's hand.

Whatever it was, Harry wanted to let go of the Corsair's hand, and that was what made him force himself to hold onto the Corsair's hand harder.

The Corsair eyed him hard, but made no forceful attempt to wrench his arm free.

The feeling, the psychic sensation increased. Harry could feel it, a physical preparation, and a psychic layering, it was almost as though the Corsair's biodata were fizzing in preparation.

Harry dropped his psychic defences and focused on the sensation, it was as though the Corsair's body was reaching away, somewhere conceptual.

Harry concentrated on those similar sensations.

Then there was a sudden in-rush of air, like the venting of atmosphere on a space craft and then...

Harry's legs buckled and he realised they were outside.

And the Corsair was laughing, and as Harry looked over at him jumping up and down and laughing to himself.

"You Harry Potter are something else, something...amazing. Balls, I tell you. That's what you've got." He rushed over and pulled Harry up so he was standing.

Harry looked up at the sky.

They had moved, somewhere else on the planet, the lower hemisphere Harry guessed from the position of the stars.

He could only guess at this point, he could feel a multitude of chemicals buzzing throughout his body, various primal chemicals and energies from whatever that was that had just happened.

It wasn't a time ring, he would have felt, even a brief journey through the vortex.

It also wasn't a transmat, not anything he was familiar with.

"You're thinking to yourself Harry Potter, what was that shit and how did it happen?" The Corsair asked bouncing on his heels a mad smile on his face, excitement present throughout his body. Then he howled at the sky. "Wow. The last girl who tried that with me, she left half her body at the club." He paused and suddenly was serious. "Emergency regeneration. Very nasty. Too confident those CIA agents, that's their problems." He looked him in the eye. "Not like you. You _felt_ it."

Harry swallowed. "What..." He trailed off. "What was...what happened?" Harry asked as he looked around and then closed his eyes as the Corsair whistled.

Harry reached out with his senses, he couldn't feel or anything, any technology that could have done that, but there was some psychic traces in the air.

"Something to do with our psychic energies?" Harry asked.

The Corsair grinned at him. "Tele-psychic transference."

Harry's eyes went wide. He had heard Quences mention that in passing. Harry knew that their ancestors had had similar abilities in the past, but even real unassisted tele-psychic transference was something that few attained.

The Corsair was grinning at him. "Yes, Really." He laughed again. "Really!" He grinned.

The Corsair took his hand and shook it again and Harry prepared himself again for the process. The Corsair laughed. "Not so soon Harry, eagerness, but it's hard work." The Corsair said as he let go of Harry's hand. "How about we go somewhere else?"

"I thought you said we couldn't?" Harry asked as he felt his biology settling down somewhat.

The Corsair looked at him. "We can go in my TARDIS, I assume you came here by transmat? Ship in orbit?" He gestured around him. "If you can guess where my TARDIS is." He smiled.

Harry smiled carefully back at the Corsair. "How about we follow you?"

"We?" The Corsair paused and looked at him.

Harry added, correcting himself. "Myself and my TARDIS."

The Corsair rubbed his hands together. "You got your TARDIS through the atmosphere. Ha! I knew I'd like you Harry Potter. So?" He waved around him. "You can come with me, I'll give you a lift back to your TARDIS."

Harry thought not. He had just met the Corsair and Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to step into the Corsair's TARDIS, not just yet. Especially with Marie here on the surface.

He slowly reached out his hand, making a motion to snap his fingers. Stattenheim remote controls on TARDISes were not standard, but the act of clicking one's fingers or whistling was used to summon them was useful in focusing the mind and to signal the arrival.

He just needed to focus and hope that Marie was aware and had recallibrated her systems.

"My TARDIS will be just here." He said and focused on a telepathic frequency he was relatively sure the Corsair wasn't aware of and snapped his fingers.

For a half a microspan there was nothing.

"No harm Harry Potter, I can help you retrieve your TARDIS." The Corsair said looking to him.

But Harry shook his head, he could _feel_ Marie's approach. Then wind started to pick up and Harry mentally frowned as he heard the roaring of a TARDIS's engines. Marie's engines were working hard in this planet's environment.

Then as her form solidified he heard the Corsair make a noise. "I didn't expect that."

Harry didn't say anything, just nodded to Marie and she opened her arms allowing him access to her internal dimensions.

Harry paused on the threshold and pointed to an area to the right of the Corsair. "There is your TARDIS."

The Corsair's eyes went wide. "How did you know Harry Potter?" He asked.

Harry smiled at the Corsair. "That would be telling." He said with a smile and walked into his TARDIS.

As the doors closed behind him he looked over to the scanner where Marie's image was waiting.

"How are you?" Harry asked as he went over to the console.

"Recalibrated, all data on this planet, including your creative manoeuvre are now stored in my databanks."

Harry nodded and began readying to dematerialise. "We need to follow the Corsair's TARDIS." He said as he began the dematerialisation process.

Marie nodded. On the holograms around the time rotor showed representations within the vortex and he saw that another TARDIS likely the Corsair's had joined them. It was in the shape of a large obelisk.

"_Corsair to Harry Potter, come in Harry Potter."_

Harry eyed the communication panel and pushed a button. "I hear you Corsair."

"_Follow my lead, I'm sure you can keep up." _

"Where are we heading?" Harry asked as he locked coordinates onto the Corsair's TARDIS. Marie could follow his TARDIS very easily.

"_Bonjaxx's Bar on Maruthea, you'll love it, if you haven't been there already, everyone loves Bonjaxx's bar."_

"I see." Harry said as the Corsair's TARDIS began travelling through the vortex.

It seemed that this bar lay on a structure within a temporal fold of the vortex, requiring some complicated precision flying to get there.

Then, after passing a wreck of a Nekkistani freighter and Navarino tourist bus he saw it.

It appeared to be a space station that had been situated at a still point in the vortex.

He watched as the Corsair's TARDIS dematerialised, the energy trace said that it had rematerialised within the space station.

Harry looked at the console. "Energy readings suggest TARDIS cradles present." Harry paused. "I don't think you need to go anywhere so common." Harry said with a smirk and adjusted the coordinates.

-/

Stepping out of Marie he saw the Corsair wandering down the corridor.

"So this is your TARDIS. Never seen one like this before." He said looking at Marie. "What sort of model is she?" He said reaching out to touch her.

Marie reacted with the speed of...of a TARDIS and grabbed his hand. "One far more advanced than yours. _Corsair._" Marie said calmly as she let go of his hand.

The Corsair seemed stunned for a moment and the looked to Harry. "The bar's this way." He gestured. Harry nodded but allowed him to walk away before speaking with Marie.

"Make a scan of this structure and then observe." Harry said, while looking around. "Check out the TARDIS cradles as well." He paused and then added. "No weapons Marie." He said seriously thinking on the last time she was...pushed in danger.

"I understand." She said in a level tone.

"I have no desire to take a dip into the vortex today." He said as he walked away from her.

-/

Inside the bar was like many a drinking establishment around the universe. An area from where drinks were served various species drinking various concoctions.

He saw a booth where the the Corsair was beckoning him, Harry made his way slowly over feeling his way through the telepathic maelstrom in the bar. It wasn't extreme but there was a slightly noticeable telepathic field, like someone had adapted a TARDIS' state of grace circuitry.

"Zeg will be around in a moment, don't worry, he's a good one." The Corsair said passing him a plasti-flex screen that held a detailed list of the consumables available.

"A good what?" Harry asked flicking through the lists of beverages.

"Dalek." The Corsair said simply.

Harry shrugged. He'd heard of the species before. They were supposedly a species on an unassuming planet. His studies hadn't really meant that he'd needed to pay attention to them or any other of the millions of species in that corner of the galaxy.

The Corsair stared at him and then whistled. Harry tensed for a moment thinking he was summoning his TARDIS. "You are a newbie aren't you. Don't even know who the Daleks are Harry Potter."

As he finished speaking a red thing around his height glided over. It had several yellow spheres around its base and a single eye piece.

"Cors-air. What do you wish to drink?" It asked in an adjusted voice, it sounded as though whatever organic creature was having its speech amplified or modified through this machine.

"My usual, and you Harry?" The Corsair addressed him.

"The ale from Hephaestus VI." Harry said watching the creature, Zeg the Corsair had said.

"Harry's never met a Dalek before." The Corsair explained.

"That is" It paused. "Interesting." It paused again. "Many are fortunate not to encounter a Dalek." It paused and its eye piece swivelled to look at the Corsair. "Others seek Daleks out."

"Only for a chat," The Corsair paused. "I thought others might be as chatty as you Zeg old mate."

"You were mistaken." It said and then glided away.

Harry watched the Dalek Zeg glide away.

"You really don't know what he is do you?" The other Time Lord looked at him with curious amazement.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Should I Corsair? There are many millions of species in the galaxy. I recall something of them, but it is outside of my field of study."

"And your field of study is?" The Corsair asked curiously.

"Gallifreyan history, its historical influences and cultural relations." Harry said smoothly. It was one of the primary subjects of his study, or would have been, had he remained on Gallifrey.

"Interesting." The Corsair said as he leaned back musing on the information. "You were at Felsecar when you discovered upon the psycho-spore that I left there." He looked up as a tray floated over.

Harry noted the micro-anti-gravitational engines on it. It seemed somewhat over designed considering there were more efficient methods of delivering drinks. He had also seen individuals delivering drinks personally. It was Corsair again that answered his questioning gaze.

"Zeg knows when I'm in deep conversation not to disturb by delivering drinks personally. He likes a good chat old Zeg does." He said allowing Harry to take his own drink.

They seemed to pause as Harry took a sip of the ale he'd ordered and the Corsair sipped his beverage. Both were in large vessels and held a sizeable amount of liquid.

Harry watched the Corsair who seemed to be anxious to speak again but was waiting for a prompt from him.

Harry had seen other students in his classes at the Academy exhibiting similar behaviour, waiting for a question to be asked so they had the satisfaction of answering it. He preferred the pursuit of knowledge for his own benefit. The information itself, the discover of it, that was fascinating for him not the revelation to others that he knew something they did not.

Harry decided not to ask the question that the Corsair seemed to wish he ask of him, the response reflected in the question he had asked him. Corsair seemed to wish to want to say what he occupied his life with.

It was a question that Harry was peripherally curious of, though what a Time Lord did when they were away from Gallifrey interested him only on the fringes of his curiosity. It was interesting that the Corsair had set the...the trap of his, but what he did during the rest of his time...

Harry found though as their amiable silence progressed that he _did_ want to know something of the Time Lord before him. He held an excitable energy that reminded him of his brother though it was somewhat more controlled. His brother liked to rush into the waters and disturb whatever might be in there; laughing as he did. Harry remembered many a gumblejack caught through that very method; his brother always laughing and splashing about surprised that his technique of surprise and action worked out so well.

Swallowing a mouthful of ale Harry leaned back and asked the question the Corsair seemed wanting to be asked.

"Do you have a field of study Corsair?" Harry asked, pausing to add further questions before the Corsair could respond. "Or do you just spend your time on planets waiting for Time Lords to find your trap?"

"Invitation Harry old chum." He said with a grin. "I don't think anyone would wait around like that, that would be boring!" He enthused. "I like a bit of adventure me. See the sights of the universe. Back home's so boring. Cloaks and robes of Gallifrey. Even you've abandoned that, even with your fascination with our planet's past." He nodded to Harry's current attire.

Harry tilted his head slightly as to acknowledge the Corsair's observation of this. He found his robes comforting and comfortable for long spans spent studying and to walk the halls and corridors of the Capitol.

But travelling the time vortex, piloting Marie, his TARDIS, visiting planets. He had found that required more than the robes of study, the robes and cloaks of Gallifrey. He had hoped to find something of the clothing of the explorers of Gallifrey's past within Marie's vaults. But they were some of the many things lost in her transition to this universe. The clothing she had within her in the alcoves next to the console room were practical clothing of which he had been selecting for his sojourns outside of her inner dimensions.

"Adventure?" Harry queried. "Like encountering more of the Daleks?"

"Damn pepper pots. They like a bit of war. Masters of manipulation, good at hiding in the shadows." He took a swig of his drink as though recalling something unpleasant made him wish to forget. "And exterminating from them."

"The adventure that invites danger at every turn." Harry replied knowingly.

The Corsair grinned again. "That's right Harry, you know it then?"

"My brother likes it." Harry said. "He once wanted to go off to the Death Zone to find Rassilon and see what his Games were all about."

The Corsair laughed and looked at him. "And you, did you wish to rush off into Gallifrey's wilderness to uncover the Rassilon's games?"

Harry nodded with a smile. "Yes, but only to keep him from falling prey to Rassilon's games. Our father stopped us, we were 'too young to throw our lives to the Raston Warriors and rabid Ogrons'." Harry chuckled at the memory.

"Let me guess Harry Potter, you were curious enough to look into _how_ to get into the zone." The Corsair asked with a grin and chuckled at the look of surprise that it exhibited from you younger Time Lord opposite him.

"There were some things written of the Games Corsair but much of it has been lost, hidden or spread away from Gallifrey." Harry revealed cautiously.

"Or every bit of what you have said, hiding things and losing them away from Gallifrey is what our ancestors did to hide their deepest machinations and manipulations of the past." The Corsair said reflectively.

"Is adventuring all you do Corsair?" Harry asked after a moment, still curious of the older Time Lord before him, there seemed to be something else that he wished to offer or to reveal. Like the showmen Shabogans playing their sleight of hands in the drinking establishments. They were simple optical allusions or sometimes complex manipulations of block transfer, pushing an item through the vortex for the briefest of micro-span and returning it changed or not for the amusement and awe of their watching audience.

The Corsair shook his head but grinned at him. "You're a perceptive one Harry Potter. I knew that as soon as I clapped eyes on you."

"I think not Corsair." Harry challenged. "You thought I would just come along with you in your TARDIS that I visited upon the planet by ship or transmat."

The Corsair nodded. "You have me Harry Potter." He held up his hands as a sign of resignation and peace. "I also do the occasional work as a free agent, mind." He then revealed in a lower tone. "For the CIA."

The Celestial Intervention Agency. Harry knew of their, not so much their actions, for which they generally did not publicise. But of their influence, there were a great many records of their actions though almost all of them were impossible to access. What was accessible he had found quite interesting.

"Interesting." Harry replied after a micro-span or three. "A free agent?" He asked.

"Not under their auspices. I do the occasional job for them, keeps me busy. They keep me in the know or parts for my TARDIS, other things. It keeps life interesting. Not to be beholden to the High Council." He screwed up his nose. "Always worrying those people."

Harry didn't say anything. He respected the High Council, they governed with knowledge and respect of Gallifrey, their protections and concerns were part of that.

"You might find it interesting too." The Corsair mentioned lightly.

Harry looked at the Corsair. "Was this all a recruiting trial?" Harry asked. The CIA's methods were less known but they were based on past institutions and intelligence gathering methods that his classes at the Academy had studied.

The Corsair looked shocked. "No! Harry Potter. Not at all." He exclaimed, shocked and worried that Harry had thought that of him. "That was...to find a mate, someone to chat with." He paused and fixed him with a look, a telepathic look as he spoke telepathically to him. "To find some people who are adept with the mental arts." He paused telepathically. "It is a rare thing on Gallifrey to be as skilled as you Harry Potter."

Harry nodded. "I have my own researches to pursue Corsair. But perhaps." Harry paused. "Perhaps if I become as you seem to be, wanting excitement and adventure then perhaps."

The Corsair nodded. "Just make sure you stay as a free agent, you don't want to get in deep with them they're like a starved pig-rat once they get hold they're very hard to get rid of."

"A strong acid." Harry said recalling Quences saying that a nearby house to his and his brothers had an infestation and should the pig-rats attack them a strong acid, while painful would force them to withdraw from your flesh.

The Corsair laughed. "That would do it. More like a bath for some in the CIA though. I'm sure they've got something you'd like your hands on Harry Potter." The Corsair paused. "Although with your TARDIS I think you could go anywhere you wish."

Harry wondered when Corsair would approach the subject of his TARDIS, of Marie.

But he surprised Harry by shaking his head and holding up his hands again. "I'm not going to pry Harry Potter. You and your TARDIS are-" He cut himself off. "Every Time Lord has a unique bond with their TARDISes. I can see that you do not wish the topic to be pursued."

Harry was grateful for the Corsair's statement and said so adding. "Marie and I are young in our travels."

The Corsair indicated that he understood.

Much could be understood from the interactions between Time Lords that was beyond the simple word.

They concluded their social encounter with simple talk of travels of the vortex and other minor events that could fall afoul the time traveller unaware.

-/

Harry found Marie waiting a short distance from the TARDIS cradles where the Corsair's TARDIS was parked, alongside two other TARDISes which appeared to Harry's eye to be earlier models of TARDIS, though without going closer to them he couldn't be sure what model precisely they were.

"Keep in touch Harry Potter, I should like to continue our association, there's not many who challenge so immediately on first meeting." He held out a hand to Harry who took it.

"I too" Harry said telepathically to him. "It is enlightening that you are as versed in the telepathic forms. Fascinating that I'd like to know more."

"I think you want to discover that for yourself Harry Potter." The Corsair said with a grin. "It's much more exciting to go out and do it for yourself than listen to an old hand like me." He said and with that and a wave he walked towards his TARDIS, placing a hand against a smooth portion of its outershell and admitting himself.

A moment later the chamber that they were in echoed to the sound of a TARDIS dematerialising.

Only now did Harry address Marie. "Did you find anything interesting?" Harry asked looking over at the other TARDISes and then thought better of any answer Marie might give. "Later I think." Harry said and with the slightest of nods indicated to Marie she opened her arms allowing him access to her internal dimensions.

Inside he walked over to the console and set the coordinates for a piece of space at a point where there would be no time or space vehicles.

As he dematerialised then he looked over at the mirror in which Marie manifested herself when they spoke within.

"Did you find anything of interest in your wandering around?" Harry asked.

"There were several time ships present docked or within transmat range of the station." She reported.

"Expected as it's a station within the vortex." Harry said as he shuffled off that jacket he was wearing and removed the weapon from his thigh returning them both to their places in the alcoves that surrounded the console.

"There appear to be portals to other minor dimensions, suggestive of cliental that frequent the bar." Marie continued as Harry returned to the console.

"People from minor dimensions visiting a bar in the time vortex?" He asked a tone of surprise.

Marie made no outward appearance to have anything other than indifference to the concept.

Harry leaned on the console as he recalled the studies at the Academy on inter-dimensional systems. He'd quite enjoyed the passioned discussions from the visiting lecturers about the tangibility of hyperspace and whether or not it was a theoretical impossibility or not. They, the students had been left with the task of writing a report on it. He'd found enough evidence that proved it did exist and was transversible. Though not by TARDIS, there was evidence that Gallifreyans had travelled through hyperspace in the past, but the knowledge to do so had been lost sometime following the Time of Chaos.

"Was there any evidence of inter-dimensional stress on the sub-stratum of the station from the transversing of dimensions near by?" He looked over at Marie's representation as he did so, even though he knew he could just talk to the console if he wished to or up at the ceiling.

Marie paused in the briefest way that she did when considering something within her memory banks.

"Nothing visible on standard scans, there were some dimensional baffles that would have dealt with any moderate dimensional stresses that could arise from such transference."

Harry nodded. "I think we'll return there again, it looked like a safe place to meet people."

"A low level dampening field was in action." She continues.

"Seemed like a state of grace system." Harry tried.

"Similar, but not the same." She added, there seemed to be the underline statement that _she _would know the difference.

Yawning for a moment Harry pushed himself away from the console.

"We'll continue to drift I think, allow your systems to fully recover." Harry paused looking at the console. "Some of your sub-systems that you reconfigured are still returning to optimum." Harry continued as he walked towards his sleeping chambers.

-/

_A/N:_

_The Corsair is in an early incarnation. _

_He's also not met the Doctor by this point. I wanted Harry to meet him first. To have Time Lord friends who are out in the universe and not be in the Doctor's shadow._

_Yes what Corsair and Harry do might be considered by some people to be "apparating", more on it and the wizarding version of it much later in the story._


End file.
